Formula One news

Renault not giving up on fourth

Despite slipping ten points behind Toyota in the battle for fourth in the constructors' championship, the Renault team is not giving up on its chances of taking fourth back in the final third of the season, according to the team's engineering director Pat Symonds.

"We were certainly left disappointed and the source of our problems seemed to be qualifying, where we underperformed," said Symonds. "If Fernando had managed a couple of clean laps in Q2, I think he would have been comfortably through to the final part of qualifying. As it was, the rest of the weekend was a direct result of our poor qualifying because starting in the midfield bunch always puts you at risk, just as Fernando found out. Nelson suffered similar trouble on the opening lap as he was held up with Fernando's accident and then tangled with Coulthard."

"It's a tough battle and we know it's going to be hard work," he added. "With six races to go they've [Toyota] got ten points advantage on us, which is a reasonable lead, especially when you consider that we are fighting for the smaller points paying positions. We never underestimate anyone and we need to fight hard with them, but I do believe that we have what it takes, as a team, to beat them. We know there's a lot to do and, of course, a freak result can make a big difference, but if all things are equal and we battle until the end of the season, I think it's an achievable target."

"The whole team is hungry for fourth place in the championship," he went on. "We recognise that our start to the season had far too much hangover from last year, but I think we recovered well from that and have shown that we can out-develop most of our rivals. We desperately want that fourth place and we are going to be fighting hard to try and get it."

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