Renault looses chances for 2nd spot!

By role
October 10 2004

The Renault F1 team has lost most of their chances to regain the second place at the Constructor's Championship after today's race at Suzuka. Renault could only score points wit Alonso who finished 5th while Bar Honda's drivers fionished 3rd and 4th.

It was a tough day for the team today when both drivers had to qualify while the track was still wet. Jacques had the upper hand in the qualifying 2 by setting the 9th best time ahead of Alonso who got 11th on the grid.

An average start saw both drivers win only one position and from there on was a struggle to try o catch the Bar Honda drivers that were most of the race in front.

Jacques Villeneuve lost pace very soon and was overtaken by his teammate early on. However, the R24 was not at his best today and the Spaniard could do not better than 5th:

"It was a good performance in the race today. Qualifying didn't really favour us today: I suppose that sometimes we get lucky with the conditions, like we did in Spa, and sometimes not. From eleventh position, the only thing to do was to go maximum attack. Unfortunately, when you start back in the field, you never have a clear track in the early laps - and it was only at the end of my first stint that I could run at my true pace. That meant I was no longer able to fight for the podium. I think I did the best I could have done today but unfortunately, the points I scored will be more useful in the drivers' championship than the constructors." Said Alonso after te race.

Jacques Villeneuve admited that he has not found the fitness to drive the car at his best and quickly dropped pace to finish 10th:

"When the race started, we quickly found that the set-up was not ideal for the dry conditions. The car was understeering a lot, so we added front downforce at both pit-stops, but I could not increase my pace in the final stint. It's a disappointing result, especially as our main rivals scored points with both cars this afternoon." Said the Canadian driver.

Managing Director Flavio Briatore was dissapointed for the result as well for the difficulty in retaking the second place on the championship with only one race to go and 16 points difference:

"Overall, this was a disappointing result after a difficult weekend for everybody. I think Fernando did the maximum today but the car was not quick enough to allow him to fight the cars in front. Looking to Brazil, it is hard to remain hopeful about our championship chances but as long as we have a possibility of re-gaining second position, then we will be motivated to try and seize it." He added.

Pat Symonds also agreed that was difficult for the team to extract as much as they wished from the car:

"It was a very different day to normal and we had to choose strategies and tyres with a minimum of information, but of course everybody found themselves in the same situation. Fernando drove a strong race and had he not lost time early in his third stint, he might have been able to beat Sato. Jacques struggled with significant amounts of understeer, owing to the lack of time we had to set up the car, and that penalised him in the race." He concluded.