Zoom Piquet flat out of luck in Monte Carlo

A strong qualifying run last time out around the streets of Monte Carlo saw Nelson Piquet start the 78-lap race from 12th position. The Renault driver made a good start as he vaulted ahead of Sebastien Buemi but his race did not last long as the Toro Rosso driver ran into the back of Piquet’s Renault a few laps later eliminating both from the race.

With no points from the first six races, Piquet knows that he needs to start scoring if he is to help the team in the constructors’ championship. Currently just 13 points cover the bottom five teams in the championship.

“My priority is to try and score some points to help the team in the championship,” Piquet asserted. “The track should suit the car and we will also have some new updates this weekend which should give us some extra performance. We need to qualify well, hopefully in the top ten, and choose an aggressive strategy so that we can move forward in the race. ”

While Piquet languishes down in 18th position in the drivers’ championship, he has raised his game in recent weeks and is now much closer to the pace of team-mate Fernando Alonso. This has not gone unnoticed by the team.

“Nelson continues to improve and strengthen as the season unfolds,” explained Renault Director of Engineering Pat Symonds. “In Monaco he was very close to Fernando in qualifying and considering the high standard that Fernando sets, I think he can be proud of the work he is doing.”

“He was very unfortunate in the race and there was absolutely no blame attached to Nelson and quite unusually we received an email from Toro Rosso apologising for the incident!”

Earl ALEXANDER
© CAPSIS International