Briatore Hails Renault's Comeback

Renault could have scored some important points in China, hadn't it been for the rain. Team boss Flavio Briatore is quite sure on that, as he made it very clear that the revised Renault R29 driven by Fernando Alonso at Shanghai was way ahead – in terms of on track performances – of rivals Ferrari, McLaren and BMW.

The fact that Renault failed to make the Top 8 was only the result of an unfortunate turn of events – rain, Alonso's spin midway through the race – believes Briatore. Alonso grabbed 2nd place in qualifying thanks to a low-fuel strategy and was planning to make the most of it in the race, but the rain shattered all of Renault's plans for the afternoon.

Instead, the Spaniard had to pit for refuel under safety car, rejoining the pack in 20th place. Nevertheless, he did manage to challenge for points midway through the race, only to drop further down the pack after an unfortunate spin. Had everything gone as planned, Alonso would have had a great chance ending the race in 5th place. Instead, he had to settle for 9th place.

“If everything had gone perfectly, he could have been fifth. And our car is even better than that. I want to see a race with normal weather conditions because we are much more competitive (than before). We have a big step forward for Fernando and Piquet in Barcelona,” said the Italian in an interview for Spanish newspaper Marca.

Alonso's car was revised only hours before the qualifying session on Saturday, as the R29 was fitted with an interim version of the “double diffuser”. As the system proved a real performance booster for Alonso, Renault have already announced that Piquet's car will also be added the new feature for next weekend's race in Bahrain.