European GP, Sunday
The Renault F1 Team scored a strong double-points finish
this afternoon at the Nürburgring in the 2006 European
Grand Prix.
Fernando Alonso took his third second-place finish of the
season after starting from pole position. The Spaniard made
a clean start to lead the opening two stints of the race,
but Michael Schumacher shadowed him throughout, and was able
to respond each time Fernando pushed to open a gap. Ultimately,
the Ferrari ran a longer second stint and made the most of
its performance advantage to emerge in the lead after the
second pit-stops. Fernando then turned down his engine to
preserve it for its second race weekend, and held his position.
Giancarlo Fisichella had an eventful race from eleventh position,
and came out on top from a number of wheel-to-wheel battles
with his rivals. The Italian found himself blocked behind
rival cars for most of the race but, thanks to some aggressive
driving, excellent pit-stops and a couple of retirements,
climbed to sixth position at the finish.
After five rounds of the 2006 season, the Renault F1 Team
leads the Constructors' Championship with a total of 62 points
from five races. Fernando Alonso has scored 44 points from
a possible fifty, and holds a thirteen-point advantage over
Michael Schumacher. Giancarlo Fisichella has scored 18 points,
and remains in fourth position in the championship.
Fernando Alonso, 2nd position
It was an interesting race for me this afternoon. I had a
good start from the pole position, and controlled the pace
during the first stint. The first stop went OK, but we came
in a couple of laps earlier than the Ferraris on the second
stop, and they had the speed to move ahead. After that, I
just turned down the engine to look after it for next weekend
in Barcelona. I think second place is a fantastic result from
this race, though. Ferrari were a bit faster than us today,
and while our tyre performance was OK, they certainly had
more speed. However, I am optimistic we can turn that around
in Barcelona, and I can't wait to race in front of my home
fans.
Giancarlo Fisichella, 6th position
It was not an easy race for me. Starting from eleventh position,
you always know that it will be hard to get through the field
and you can spend a long time stuck behind slower competitors.
That is what happened to me today. I only had one or two clear
laps in the entire race, so it was hard to show my real pace,
but we had a good strategy and managed to gain positions.
The second pit-stop was a really nice point: I was very aggressive
on the pit-entry because I knew it was my only chance to pass
Villeneuve, then the team did another fantastic job with the
pit-stops and got me out very quickly. I had a nice fight
with Montoya in Turn 1 as well, it was not easy, but I managed
to hold my position. At the end of the race, I was quicker
than Barrichello but not by enough to overtake. Still, I have
added more points to the total, and I hope we can have a smoother
weekend in Spain in five days' time.
Flavio Briatore, Managing Director
This was a good race for us overall, but a weekend where we
were fighting against rivals who were just a bit faster. We
took points from McLaren-Mercedes, only lost a few to Ferrari
and Fernando limited the damage in the drivers' championship
by finishing right behind Michael. Fernando didn't put a foot
wrong today, and Fisico did a great job to gain places on
this track. We have to admit, though, that the combination
of Bridgestone and Ferrari was too strong for us today –
and in those conditions, finishing second is like winning.
Congratulations to Ferrari, but we hope to be fighting for
the victory again in Barcelona.
Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering
As we had expected, it was a very tough race this afternoon
but it unfolded much as we had predicted. We knew that by
taking the fight to Michael, we would also have to be looking
over our shoulders for Massa and Raikkonen, and that was exactly
how it turned out for Fernando. The critical part of his race
was before the second stop. We needed a gap of several seconds
but however hard we pushed, Michael was able to respond and
close up again. It was therefore well before the second stop
that we were aware he would come out in front of us, barring
problems. After that, we turned down Fernando's engine because
we knew the threat from behind could be contained. Overall,
his second place is not too disappointing when we take the
long-term championship view. As for Giancarlo, he had a very
busy afternoon. As is normal when starting eleventh, we left
a very open strategy to try and make up ground. Although it
allowed us to jump ahead of a few people – including
Villeneuve who had put us there in the first place –
a power steering problem on the car in the closing stages
meant it was hard to achieve much more.
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