The Mild Seven Renault F1 Team took twelve points, and its sixth podium finish of the season, this afternoon at the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona. Fernando Alonso took second place in his home Grand Prix, his fifth consecutive podium finish, while Giancarlo Fisichella came home fifth after a difficult race during which he lost time through a bodywork breakage. This saw the team advance his second pit-stop in order to solve the problem, and meant the Italian relinquished second position.
The team nevertheless has further extended its lead in the Constructors' Championship, scoring 12 points this afternoon to take its total to 58 points, 18 ahead of closest rivals Toyota. Fernando sits atop the drivers' championship with 44 points, while Giancarlo is 4th with 14 points.
Fernando Alonso: For me today, this is the same feeling as winning – we had a fantastic car, almost no problems all weekend and I think we did the maximum we could by finishing second. We thought McLaren would be a little bit quicker than us, although it maybe looked too easy for Kimi in the first stint because I was having some small problems, and I am totally confident the gap will not be the same at the next race. The crowd was hoping for a win for sure, but on the in-lap I could see they were still happy, and very excited at my finish and what the team achieved today. I have five podiums from five races, and 44 points already – that is a fantastic score, and I know the whole team is pushing to the maximum to maintain our position.
Giancarlo Fisichella: I have a mixture of emotions after the race: I am pleased to have finished in the points, and I think I showed the pace we had in the car today. But it is also a shame that we had the problem, because our strategy was good, the set-up was spot on and I drove a good race. I think P2 was mine. The problem happened during the middle of the race, when I suddenly felt a loss of front downforce, so I pitted and the team changed the nose as a precaution, and also fixed the problem down by the floor of the car. We refuelled at the same time, so it was then a case of picking off the cars in front when they stopped. I was pleased to be able to pass Webber though – I could see I was quicker, and then got a run on him out of the last corner and did a good manoeuvre into turn 1. Overall, I am pretty happy with fifth position: I have scored points again, and am now in a good position for first qualifying at the next race in Monaco. That will be very important there, and it is my favourite circuit, so I am very optimistic that I can have a strong result.
Flavio Briatore, Managing Director: You can't win all the races in a season and on days like this, you need to be able to think about the championship as well. Today, we have scored a fantastic result for the team: we got both cars home in the points, one on the podium – and would have had two there apart from Fisi's problem. Giancarlo drove a great race, and we have to say sorry to him for the problem with his car that cost him a podium. Fernando didn't make any mistakes, and deserved his second place in front of the Spanish crowd. We also congratulate McLaren on an impressive performance this afternoon.
Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering: First of all, I would like to congratulate McLaren – they simply out-paced us today. Fernando's race was reasonably controlled, although a little rear tyre blistering caused him problems in the early stages and once it had cleaned up, it was too late for him to be able to mount a challenge on Kimi. Giancarlo drove an excellent race: he looked set to take second position until a problem with the bodywork around the floor of the car slowed him dramatically during his second stint. The team reacted very quickly, and Fisico made a very early second stop to fix the problem. His challenge from then on was to maintain his pace and climb the order as others pitted, a task he accomplished faultlessly. It was a small consolation to see him record the fastest lap on the final lap of the race.
