Nelson Piquet stays on, will race in Hungary

Nelson Piquet continues with Renault

The immediate future of Nelson Piquet seems to be in F1 with Renault. The Brazilian driver will race in Hungary next weekend. This has become obvious from ING Renault F1 press release ahead of Hungarian Grand Prix. In it the team discussed the upcoming race with both their drivers Fernando Alonso and Nelson Piquet. Here is what Nelson Piquet has to say on Hungarian GP:

Nelson, you had mixed fortunes in Germany. Talk us through your weekend…

It wasn’t an easy weekend as the weather kept changing, especially during qualifying. It was good to get through to Q3 but then I had a poor start to the race and struggled to get heat into the hard tyres, which cost me a lot of places on the first lap. After that I pushed hard, but my car didn’t have the new updates that Fernando had and it was difficult to make much progress or match Fernando’s pace.

Hungary is a circuit where you’ve been successful in the past. Are you looking forward to this year’s race?

I enjoyed Hungary last year and it was probably one of my best races as I finished sixth. It’s also a circuit where I won in GP2. Although there are no quick corners, it’s a fun place to drive and the twisty layout makes it feel like a go-kart track. It’s still quite challenging and you have to find the rhythm of the circuit and be accurate through the slow corners as the exit of one corner is the entry to the next. Any mistakes therefore cost you a lot of time.

What are your aims for next weekend?

I should have the same upgrades as Fernando in Hungary and I think I can be more competitive. As always I will be aiming to qualify in the top ten and hopefully score some points in the race. Qualifying will be vital as it’s so tough to overtake at the Hungaroring because the braking zones are small and it’s very dirty offline, so it’s important that we concentrate on getting the most from Saturday.

Romain Grosjean can continue his GP2 title challenge for now.

Photo: Renault/LAT