Formula One news

Renault happy with sixth and eleventh

It was another positive afternoon for the Renault team as Fernando Alonso and Nelson Piquet qualified in 6th and 11th places for tomorrow's Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos, Sao Paulo.

"We thought that it would be very close and competitive this afternoon and we were not mistaken," said Alonso. "We knew that it would be difficult to try and match the Ferraris and McLarens and so I think we have done our maximum this afternoon by qualifying in 6th place. I now hope that the strategy and the tyres work as expected so that we can have a strong race tomorrow."

Nelson Piquet commented, "It's clear that I would have liked to reach Q3 today. The car was working well, I was comfortable and I pushed hard, but that wasn't enough. The times are very close, just as we expect, but I must now concentrate on the race tomorrow where I will do everything to try and move forward and score some points."

Engineering chief Pat Symonds added, "As usual the very short lap time here produced a close grid. Nelson was very unlucky not to make Q3 as he was just a fraction slower than Fernando in Q2. But Fernando did a magnificent job as always and secured a good grid position with a sensible fuel load. We are now looking forward to the race tomorrow."

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