Formula One news

Alonso gives Renault home fans hope

Renault carried its strong practice form into today's qualifying session as Fernando Alonso and Nelson Piquet qualified in 3rd and 10th places respectively for tomorrow's French Grand Prix in Magny-Cours.

"The times were very tight today, in both Q1 and Q2, but I made it through to Q3 and was able to set a good time," said Alonso. "The car has really improved and so for the first time this season we have the real chance to fight for the podium. The Ferraris are certainly a step ahead, but we will give our maximum to get a good result tomorrow."

Nelson Piquet commented, "It's frustrating to miss out on Q3, but we didn't anticipate the behaviour of the soft tyres which turned out be slower than we thought. But at least we have the chance to adopt the ideal strategy for the race tomorrow and I hope we can benefit from that because it is particularly difficult to overtake here. The times were very close today, but the car behaved well and I think we can be on the pace in normal race conditions, and I will do my best to try and score my first points tomorrow."

Engineering chief Pat Symonds added, "A good qualifying session after our strong form in practice earlier in the weekend. Obviously we are thrilled with Fernando's second row starting position and I believe he has a real chance of fighting for the podium tomorrow. And let's not forget Nelson's performance: he was just 0.05s away from making Q3. It's a great effort from him as well."

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