2007 United States GP, Sunday
The ING Renault F1 Team enjoyed a strong afternoon in Indianapolis
at the 2007 United States Grand Prix.
Heikki Kovalainen raced aggressively from sixth on the grid
to a fifth place finish. After making up a position at the
start, and leading Kimi Raikkonen throughout the first stint,
the young Finn led a Grand Prix for the first time from laps
22 to 26 before making his first stop. He subsequently raced
hard against Nick Heidfeld's, pushing the BMW to breaking
point, and then brought the car home in a strong fifth place.
Giancarlo Fisichella's one-stop strategy was severely compromised
by a mistake on the second lap, when he spun on his way into
turn 4 and dropped from 8th position to 19th. He subsequently
began a determined fightback, overtaking every car up to 11th
place before making his first stop. After this point, he was
able to extend his advantage over the cars behind him, but
unable to make ground on the next group, some 45 seconds in
front.
The 2007 US Grand Prix saw the ING Renault F1 Team out-score
championship rivals BMW Sauber for the first time this season,
cancelling out the three point advantage they had gained last
weekend in Montreal. The team will be aiming to build on this
momentum at the next round of the championship, Renault's
home race in Magny Cours.
Heikki Kovalainen, 5th position
This was another strong result for me, and I am starting to
get some good momentum now. I had a good start, and when the
other cars went to the inside, I braked late on the outside
line and managed to overtake Raikkonen. I kept him behind
until the first stop, and when he pitted, along with Heidfeld,
I tried to really put the hammer down and push home the advantage.
I didn't even realise I was leading the race, until I came
into the pits. Unfortunately, though, the tyre performance
just wasn't there any more – and I lost out to Heidfeld
and Raikkonen coming out of the pits. I tried to pass Nick
on the way into turn 4, but couldn't make it stick, and then
the tyres started graining because I was sliding around in
the slipstream. But I kept pushing him and when he retired,
it was just a case of pushing the car and keeping the lap-times
consistent. The balance felt really good on both types of
tyre today, and it was nice to see that we can fight BMW on
pure pace in race conditions. Ferrari and McLaren are still
a step ahead, but we are moving in the right direction with
the car. If we keep pushing like this, we will keep on making
progress back towards the front.
Giancarlo Fisichella, 9th position
I am just really sorry about the result today. I lost the
rear end going into turn 4 on lap 2, and that compromised
my whole race. We had planned to do a one-stop strategy, and
even with the heavy fuel load I was able to pass guys quite
easily on my way back through the field. The pace was very
strong today, and I even managed to overtake a few cars off-line
on the outside of turn 6. I had to be aggressive and I was,
but we still ended up just outside the points. Without the
spin, I could definitely have got P6 I think, so it's a missed
opportunity. The results in these two races haven't been good,
but the pace of the car has, and that is encouraging as we
go back to Europe. We are heading in the right direction,
and there are two important races for the team coming up now.
I am confident we can race with BMW, and start closing the
gap in the championship.
Flavio Briatore, Managing Director
This was a great race for Heikki, and he did a fantastic job
at the end of a perfect weekend. He put pressure on BMW and
was very competitive in every stint. Giancarlo could have
done something similar, but unfortunately a mistake early
in the race ruined his chances. Even so, it's a positive day
for us. We took points off our direct championship rivals,
and need to continue this trend in the next races.
Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering
It was another controlled and effective race for Heikki, to
build on his strong result last week. He has been very competitive
all weekend, and these are four more well-deserved points.
Unusually, we decided to split our pit-stop strategies at
this race, putting Giancarlo on a single stop. Had he not
spun on lap 2, he would have finished very close to his team-mate.
Overall, our trip to North America has shown that we are pulling
our performance level back to where we want it to be, and
that is certainly encouraging for everybody working so hard
at the track and back at the factories. But equally we are
under no illusions, and there is still more to do when we
return to Europe.
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