Not only did
Nelsinho Piquet finally break his
Formula 1 points duck in his eighth race in the top flight in the French Grand Prix this weekend, but he did so in some style – by finishing ahead of double world champion team-mate
Fernando Alonso in the process.
The young Brazilian – who has allegedly been given a three-race ultimatum, concluding with the British Grand Prix in a fortnight's time, to fast raise his game or else risk being replaced at
Renault – was on form throughout the Magny-Cours meeting, going a confidence-boosting quickest of all in Saturday morning practice before taking only his second top ten qualifying position with ninth on the grid, following the penalties meted out to McLaren-Mercedes drivers
Lewis Hamilton and
Heikki Kovalainen.
The 22-year-old then made a positive start and spent his entire opening stint impressively fending off the two Silver Arrows, with either one or the other of them seemingly permanently attached to his rear wing. He subsequently went on to reel in the battling Alonso and
Red Bull Racing's
Mark Webber in the closing stages, and when the Spaniard ran wide, Piquet pounced to steal seventh place.
“It's the first time that everything has gone without any problems for me,” the 2006 GP2 Series vice-champion recounted afterwards. “The car and the team's strategy worked well and I was able to score my first couple of points today. I am happy and I hope that we can continue like this for the rest of the season.”
Alonso, for his part, was rather less happy, despite helping to contribute to the
Régie's first double points finish of a slowly-improving campaign. After lining up a superb third on the grid, the 26-year-old lost ground at the start and thereafter never truly recovered, switching across from a three-stop strategy to just two during his first pit visit and ‘enjoying' a number of close scraps with delayed former team-mate Hamilton en route to eighth spot at the flag, including being aggressively sideswiped by the Briton at one point as the
McLaren swept past.
