Formula One news

Renault celebrates 'amazing' victory

Renault took its first victory of the season today as Fernando Alonso produced a brilliant tactical drive to win the Singapore Grand Prix, the sport's first ever night race.

Alonso started the race light on fuel and enjoyed an aggressive opening stint on the soft option tyres, rising to 11th before heading to the pits on lap 12. Piquet meanwhile was running heavy, but lost the car on the exit of turn 17 a couple of laps later, which brought out the safety car. 

"This is a fantastic result - my first podium of the season; my first victory and I'm very happy, although I think it will take several days for me to realise what we have achieved," said Alonso. "Wining a Grand Prix here just seemed to be impossible because we missed our chance yesterday in qualifying, but we were very fortunate today and it's a superb result for the team. We chose a very aggressive strategy and we had a bit of luck, but we had the pace and the car was fantastic throughout the weekend."

Nelson Piquet commented, "From the start of the race things were complicated and I had a lot of graining and the situation got worse and worse. The team asked me to push, which I tried to do and finally I lost the rear of my car. I hit the wall heavily but I'm ok. I am disappointed with my race but obviously very happy for the team this evening."
Team boss Flavio Briatore added, "This is an amazing victory for Renault and for Fernando. Since Friday we knew that the car was very competitive and we were very disappointed at the end of qualifying. Today the car was extremely quick, stronger than the Ferrari and McLaren, and although we had some luck when the safety car came out, we deserved this victory. It's a very important result for Renault after two difficult seasons and helps us prepare for 2009 in the best way possible."

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