Despite not being able to use his KERS system to it’s full capacity at the start, Fernando Alonso was pleased with his performance during this afternoon’s Italian Grand Prix.
The Spaniard managed to finish in fifth position and pick up some much needed points for the under-fire Renault team.
Alonso is now adamant that he can still fight for victories and podiums in the remaining races of the season.
The second Renault car of Romain Grosjean finished in fifthteenth place, having been damaged on the first lap.
Fernando Alonso -5th: “I’m very happy with the result today, although at the start the KERS did not meet my expectations. In the race I had good pace, the car behaved perfectly and our strategy worked well. Finishing in fifth position is a good result, but the objective for the rest of the season is a podium or even a victory.”
Romain Grosjean – 15th: “I’m very disappointed with today’s race. My start was very poor and I need to try and understand why. I had some contact in the first chicane and so the car was damaged for the rest of my race, which made things difficult and impossible to score any points. The challenge now is to continue to progress and try to get closer to Fernando in qualifying.”
Flavio Briatore, Managing Director: “Today we had a competitive car and the four points scored by Fernando are the result of a perfect drive. Romain has gained some more experience and continues to learn.”
Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering: “Both our cars had quite lonely races today as is so often the case in Monza, particularly with single-stop strategies where there are really not many options available. Fernando’s race was steady; he ran at the pace he needed to and fifth place is a just reward for the level of performance that we have. Romain suffered damage to his car at the first corner and the tyre was badly cut, which severely compromised the performance of the car and left him with a very difficult job all afternoon.”
Remi Taffin, Head of Engine Operations: “Today’s result is quite positive as we have scored four points. Our starts were not fantastic and that meant that we couldn’t get ahead of some cars and fight further up. However, the performance of the car was where we expected it to be. This weekend we used the same engines as in Spa and we might also use them again in Singapore. Overall we have no concerns over the engine situation for the rest of the year and so we could use new or used engines for the upcoming races. We hope that the races to come will allow us to complete the season strongly and get on to the podium.”
