Formula One news

Renault hopeful starting eighth

Torrential rain storms made for difficult conditions in today's qualifying session as Fernando Alonso and Nelson Piquet qualified in 8th and 17th places respectively for tomorrow's Italian Grand Prix in Monza. 

"I am pretty satisfied today because, even if it had been dry, I don't think that our situation would have been any easier," said Alonso. "The track conditions were very difficult and we were able to reach Q3, which has given us a good starting position for tomorrow. Of course, the race will be tough and there are still lots of unknowns: the weather tomorrow could come and change things once again."

Piquet commented, "I'm disappointed with my qualifying session today. Since the start of the weekend, we haven't really been on the pace and I was expecting a difficult session. The weather this afternoon didn't help. It's a shame and I know that tomorrow we will have to fight hard in what looks certain to be another tricky race."

Engineering director Pat Symonds added, "It was hard work out there today for the teams and the drivers. It was necessary to make decisions that needed to be changed rapidly because of the weather conditions. At the end of a session like that we are thankful to have no damaged cars. Fernando's grid position is probably as good as we would have hoped for in the dry and tomorrow's race will once again be about handling the changing weather conditions."

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