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The ING Renault F1 Team enjoyed a reasonably satisfying afternoon as
Fernando Alonso and Nelson Piquet qualified in 9th and 13th places for
tomorrow’s Malaysian Grand Prix.
Fernando Alonso, R28-03
Q1 1:35.983, P12
Q2 1:35.140, P10
Q3 1:38.450, P9
Nelson Piquet, R28-01
Q1 1:37.074, P14
Q2 1:35.562, P13
Q3 N/A
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under the constant threat of rain, the qualifying battle of the
midfield was intense once again, with Fernando and Nelson in the thick
of the fight to reach Q3. Nelson narrowly missed the cut, while
Fernando proceeded to the top ten shootout.
For the final part of qualifying the team concentrated on
choosing the optimum strategy for the race and fuelled Fernando’s car
accordingly. The team remains optimistic for the race, and with showers
predicted for tomorrow, the team will look to deliver another strong
performance in the race.
Fernando Alonso P9
“We achieved our
first objective today, which was to get into Q3. We can now concentrate
on our second objective which is to improve our pace in the race and to
finish in the points. I could have done better in Q3 this afternoon as
I was with Heidfeld on a fast lap while the others were going slowly,
and that affected me a bit, which is a shame. I am sure that the race
tomorrow will be interesting and I hope we can find our way into the
points, just like in Melbourne. We must now concentrate on our
preparation for the race tomorrow.”
Nelson Piquet P13
“I am relatively
satisfied with my qualifying this afternoon. I made good progress in
the last free practice session this morning and my qualifying went
without too many problems. Of course I must still improve, but I am not
too far away from my teammate and I cannot wait to see how the race
goes tomorrow. My objective will be to do better than Melbourne and to
reach the end of my second Grand Prix, and if possible to score some
points.”
Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering
“I
think we can be reasonably satisfied with our performance today. With
Fernando we got the car into Q3 and we could see that while the times
were reasonably close, the margin needed to obtain a good grid position
was probably beyond us. As a result we took a tactical decision to fuel
quite long and so ninth place was pretty acceptable. Fernando has had a
good weekend and worked well with his engineers to get this result.
It’s unfortunate for Nelson that he missed Q3 by a reasonably small
margin, most of which can be accounted for by a couple of errors in
Turns 2 and 4. He has had an excellent weekend and been constantly
competitive. I’m sure that he is due a strong race here tomorrow.”
Denis Chevrier, Head of Engine Track Operations
“This
year it is very competitive to reach Q3 and we were part of the big
fight during Q2 this afternoon. We are happy to see Nelson make
progress since his first Grand Prix in Melbourne. He has had a more
structured weekend, which has allowed him to feel comfortable in the
car and on the circuit. He did a good qualifying session and the gap
with Fernando is less significant than in Melbourne, so it is a better
result for the team. With Fernando, we reached Q3, which was our
objective. The gaps between the first ten cars are quite significant
and we believe that the strategies of the others will be different to
Fernando.”
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