Heikki Kovalainen, 16th: “I think that was a pretty good race. For me everything was working well in the car but honestly it was a bit lonely out there! We’re not quite with the guys ahead, and we’re well clear of the teams behind, so I wanted to make sure I could push as hard as possible over the full race distance, not make any mistakes and get the car home in one piece. We are progressing in the right direction, and it will take time to be able to really fight with the guys in front, but we’ll get there.”
Karun Chandhok, 20th: “That’s a full race distance completed and an awful lot of learning under my belt. Honestly, that probably wasn’t the race I wanted -I had a couple of high speed spins and I think I need more time to get used to the tyres. When they start to go off there’s very little give compared to last year’s rubber, but that’s all part of the learning process and I’m glad I got the car home and did the best job I could.”
Thierry Salvi, Renault Sport F1 Support Leader: “From the engine perspective I think we are pretty pleased. The feedback we have had from the drivers has been good – we wanted to maximise the driveability of the engine, especially in the wet conditions, and according to the data we amassed we managed to achieve that. Karun did a good job in very tough conditions – it is not easy to jump straight into the car and be able to extract maximum performance, but he adapted well to the strategies we gave him and has definitely taken a lot on board.”
Mike Gascoyne, Chief Technical Officer: “Good to get both cars home over the line. Heikki had good pace, particularly on the options and he was able to keep up with the cars ahead throughout most of the race. Karun acquitted himself pretty well, despite having a couple of moments he got on with the job and has definitely learnt a lot from his time in the car here this weekend. The whole team has worked very hard to make sure we could have a two car finish, so well done to them and now we can move straight on to Hungary where the aim will be the same – progress little by little and keep moving forward.”
Tony Fernandes, Team Principal: “The main aim today was to bring two cars home and to make sure Karun could learn as much as possible over a full race distance. It is good that he finished the full 60 laps and showed some reasonable pace and I am very pleased with Heikki’s speed on the options – we obviously have a lot of work to do but this is another platform to build on, so overall I am pretty happy.”
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