Renault have been the best of the middle runners so far in 2010, seemingly being able to keep up with Mercedes. However, they couldn’t manage that today as Robert Kubica retired and Vitaly Petrov finished outside the points in 13th.
Kubica got off to a great start, and was right in the fight for 3rd place with Alonso and Rosberg, until a driveshaft problem forced his retirement.
“I had a dream first lap, gaining a lot of places, but after that our pace was not so good and I was lacking overall grip. Following my pit stop I had a nice fight with Alonso, but he overtook me by cutting turn eight. I was on the inside, he was on the outside and he passed me with all four wheels off the track. The team informed me that he would have to give back the position, but before he could do that we had a driveshaft failure at the rear of the car, so all I could do was bring it back to the pits and retire,” Kubica lamented.
Unfortunately for Vitaly Petrov, he suffered a puncture meaning he couldn’t finish in the points, but still made up 3 places from where he qualified in 16th place.
“Today I think it was possible to finish in the points, but I had some bad luck with a puncture after the Safety Car period which cost me a lot of time,” Petrov explained. “My start was not too bad, and I made up three positions on the first lap. After then, though, it was really difficult to overtake because there are no slow corners at this circuit, but I tried my best. It’s good to have finished the race because it gives us lots of data and gives me more experience of the track.”
Team Principal Eric Bouiller said the start of the race was the only enjoyable moment of the day! The Frenchman said: “Robert had an exceptional start to the race, but unfortunately this was to be the only enjoyable moment of the day. It’s disappointing to see him retire, but the car has been extremely reliable this year and this is his first retirement of the season.
“As for Vitaly, his race pace was good today, but he picked up a puncture and that ruined his race. We now have to bounce back and find more speed because we struggled for overall pace this weekend. We also saw today how close the fight is with Mercedes and we need to work hard to get back ahead of them,” he concluded.
