Formula One news

Both Renault drivers aiming for points

The two Renault drivers are hoping to finish in the top eight of the Bahrain Grand Prix after qualifying seventh and fifteenth on the grid. Fernando Alonso will be starting in a points position, whereas team-mate Nelson Piquet will need to make up seven places in the race, having run wide on his final qualifying run.

Alonso starts the race seventh

"Once again we saw a very close qualifying session," Alonso said afterwards. "It's difficult and stressful inside the cockpit, but I guess it's very interesting for the viewers. We haven't made many changes to the car since China, but the team has been working late into the night once again to give me a competitive car. Qualifying went more or less as we had expected and starting 7th is about what we imagined was possible." The Spaniard continued to say that the team must do all it can to score on Sunday, and will in fact aim for a top six place or even higher in order to create a cushion.

Piquet's second and final run on the Super Soft tyres saw him fly off the track and onto the tarmac run-off area at Turn 15 before apologising to the team over the radio. "I pushed a bit too much to try to get into Q3," Nelsinho admitted after the session. "I had four cars around me and I really couldn't do much so I had to take some risks and pushed hard, but it wasn't good enough to go through to Q3. Hopefully we will have a strong start to the race and can adopt a good strategy so that I can challenge for the points, which is what we need right now." Now also running with the team's double diffuser, Piquet confirmed after qualifying that his car is now exactly the same as his team-mate's: "Yes - it's yellow and white, it's the same!"

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