14/09/2008
NEWS STORY
It was a another damp afternoon in Monza as Fernando Alonso and Nelson Piquet finished in 4th and 10th places respectively in an exciting Italian Grand Prix.
Much like yesterday's qualifying session, today's race was all about the weather with rain showers hitting Monza shortly before the start. The race got underway under safety car conditions with the whole grid on extreme wet tyres.
Both Fernando and Nelson ran long first stints, but Fernando was one of the first to switch to wet tyres on lap 30 with his one stop strategy. It proved to be the right move as the track continued to dry and moved towards the wet tyres, allowing Fernando to rise to fourth. Nelson also ran a one stop strategy, running the longest opening stint of anyone to gain ground and emerge in the top ten after his stop.
The track continued to dry through to the end of the race as Fernando brought his R28 home in fourth, while Nelson finished tenth. Having picked up another five points, the team is now tied on points with Toyota in the battle for fourth in the constructors' championship.
Formula 1 now heads to Singapore in two weeks time, where the team will aim to build on today's result.
Fernando Alonso: I am very happy. The result today is very good because Monza was supposed to be the race that we were looking forward to the least. We made up the five points that we needed in our championship fight, which is really rewarding and a big source of motivation for the rest of the season. I am now curious to see what awaits us in Singapore.
Nelson Piquet: I had a good fight through the pack today and my pace was good considering the fuel load that I started with, which is quite satisfying. Unfortunately I finished outside the points, but I think that everything was decided in qualifying. I want to remain positive and will now concentrate on preparing for the next race in Singapore.
Flavio Briatore, Managing Director ING Renault F1 Team: We could have finished on the podium today, but we still had a great race and have gained ground on Toyota, which was our objective. In these difficult conditions, our two drivers performed well and had good drives. For the four races to come, we will now try to build on this to finish in fourth place in the championship.
Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering: Once again, wet conditions gave us an exciting race and the long stint strategy worked perfectly for us, allowing us to have the best tyres at the best times. Both drivers drove extremely well in these difficult conditions, but today really belongs to Sebastian Vettel, congratulations to him!