Fernando Alonso admitted his Spanish Grand Prix weekend had been something of a rollercoaster ride after his
Renault's engine gave up the ghost just over halfway through the race, but he nevertheless ended proceedings feeling a good degree more positive than he has done for some time.
The former double
Formula 1 World Champion – who earned both his title successes with the
Régie before the French concern hit a nosedive in form – qualified a stunning second on the grid n front of his partisan home supporters in Barcelona, and ran in third position until his first pit-stop during the grand prix. Though he would subsequently slip down to fifth place after the opening round of pit visits had been completed, it was still by a considerable margin Renault's strongest performance of the season to-date – that was, until the engine went bang…
“This weekend has been both sweet and sour,” the man from Oviedo mused afterwards. “The car was very competitive and we were up there with the Ferraris and the BMWs, which is a good first step.
“I think now we should hopefully start enjoying races again and racing closer to the front. Although I am disappointed not to finish, it was a nice surprise to see that we are more competitive than we thought we would be.”
That is indeed the case, and the Enstone-based outfit's movement up the pecking order was confirmed by team-mate
Nelsinho Piquet also making it into the top ten in qualifying for the first time in his fledgling career in the top flight. The young Brazilian rookie would unfortunately endure a scrappy race, going off-track early on before retiring with accident damage after colliding with
Scuderia Toro Rosso's Sébastien Bourdais on lap seven as he attempted to make his way back up through the field again.
“I made my first mistake early on and went off the track,” the 22-year-old candidly confessed, “but I was able to rejoin down the field and from then on I tried to attack, which meant I had to take a few risks.
