Fernando Alonso picked up Renault’s sole points of the season to date when he finished fifth in Australia on the opening day.
Following a poor performance in Malaysia where he finished 11th, the team introduced the double-decker diffuser for the Chinese GP and they immediately improved as Alonso found himself on the front row of the grid.
However, the Spaniard left Shanghai empty-handed after a decision to fuel his car lightly backfired when the race started behind the Safety Car. SkySports
“To come away with no points was a disappointing end to a really positive weekend where we showed a lot of potential,” Alonso said with reference to new diffuser fitted to his car on Friday night. “The new parts we added to the car gave us a big step forward and the team did a great job to get them to China and fitted on the car in time for qualifying.”
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“To qualify on the front row showed the progress we’ve made and it was a boost for the whole team,” the double world champion continued. “Unfortunately I started the race light on fuel and I made my first stop under the safety car, which pretty much ended my race as I went from the front row to the back of the pack. It was just one of those days when the decisions we took didn’t go our way.”
“Hopefully we can repeat the performance we showed in China so that we can reach Q3 and fight for points in the race,” he said. “It’s still an early stage in the year and already the team has made incredible progress, which gives me the belief that we can still fight for the championship. We will have more updates when we get back to Europe, but at this stage in the year it’s important that we score as many points as possible at each race so we can be in the fight at the end of the season.” Yahoo!Eurosport
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