British GP, Sunday
The Renault F1 Team this afternoon took victory in its 200th
Grand Prix start, at the Silverstone circuit where the F1
team made its debut 29 years ago in 1977 and last won in 1983,
thanks to a stunning drive from Fernando Alonso.
The reigning world champion took his third consecutive victory
after starting from his fourth consecutive pole position,
to make it six wins out of eight for the Renault F1 Team in
the 2006 season. Team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella started fifth
and finished fourth after a dynamic drive that saw him fall
just short of the podium as he shadowed Kimi Raikkonen to
the chequered flag. Today's performance sees the Renault F1
Team extend its championship lead to 31 points; Fernando Alonso
has now scored 74 points from 80 and leads the drivers' title
by 23 points, while Giancarlo Fisichella is fourth, one point
behind Kimi Raikkonen.
Fernando Alonso, Winner
This is a very special win – in fact, it has been three
special wins in a row for me. After Spain and then Monaco,
this is another of the classic races that you want to win.
Great Britain is the home of motorsport, I live in Oxford
myself only half an hour from this track, and of course we
have a big part of our team based nearby in Enstone. It is
really something wonderful to win for them, at home. The race
was really competitive, and tough. We had a set-up on the
car that meant it was quite understeery in the first part
of the stint, but just got better and better and I could build
a lead as the fuel loads came down – although I had
a little bit of graining in the second stint that slowed my
pace. It was windy out there too, like all weekend, so that
made things a little bit unpredictable, and we are not used
to this heat in Silverstone. So it was never an easy win,
but this shows we are working really hard. There's no secret
to this fantastic season. We attack every race as a new challenge,
we are concentrating all the time and there are no mistakes
from the team. The best form of defence is attack –
and we showed that today.
Giancarlo Fisichella, 4th position
It was a good race for me, I had a competitive and consistent
pace and I was quicker than the cars around me; there was
graining in the second stint, like for Fernando, but it cleared
up on the final set of tyres and I was able to really push.
In the final laps, I was much faster Raikkonen in the first
sector, but he was a little bit quicker in the second and
third parts because they were running more downforce than
us – and as I got near him, I lost grip because of the
turbulence and couldn't get close enough to overtake. This
was another great result for the team though – just
like in Monaco and Barcelona, we scored the most points of
anybody today and got both cars to the finish. Canada is next,
one of my favourite circuits, and this Renault team is really
on a roll at the moment.
Flavio Briatore, Managing Director
I am delighted for our team today to win in Silverstone. This
was a special afternoon for all of us, but especially all
the people who work just 50 km away in Enstone. Everything
was perfect today – the R26 car, the strategy, Fernando
and Giancarlo, who deserved a podium today. Congratulations
to Michelin as well: they once again brought great tyres for
this race.
Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering
This was a great end to what has been a wonderful weekend
at Silverstone – Fernando's hat trick of pole, win and
fastest lap showed a world champion at the top of his game.
I am sure we had some doubters yesterday afternoon when we
took pole position, but we showed today that we had done it
on longer strategies, that played out well for us. Fisi put
in another great drive as well, and had a good battle with
Kimi at the end. The car seemed perfect in the hot conditions
on a demanding circuit, and Michelin came up with the goods
to provide consistent, competitive tyres. Three in a row is
a great feeling; we will be working hard in the coming weeks
to develop the car even further, and try to break our Canada
jinx next time out in Montreal.
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