Bad race wraps up Renault's bad season

The Enstone outfit, constructors' champions the past two years, could do no better than third this season after the departure of Fernando Alonso to rivals McLaren.

At Interlagos today Giancarlo Fisichella's race was over within two laps, with the Italian involved in two separate accidents. The second of those saw him running off the track at Turn 1 and, upon rejoining it, being rammed from behind by Spyker's Sakon Yamamoto.

"This has been a difficult season for the whole team, but I had hoped that the last race would last for a bit longer than two laps," said Fisichella.

"I got hit in the rear at the start, which damaged the car. Then, on lap 2, I went off fighting with a Williams on the way into Turn 1.

"The car was very hard to control or slow down on the grass, with very low grip, and that meant that when I came back onto the track, I was involved in a collision with another car.

"It was just a racing incident, and I am sorry that it ended both of our races. It is a shame to leave the final race empty-handed, after a year when we had to fight so hard.

"But thank you to all the guys: no matter how hard it got, they never stopped working, and they deserved more from the end of the year."

Heikki Kovalainen was also involved in the same accident involving teammate Fisichella on lap one. That forced the Finn to pit, and his race ended on lap 35, when he spun off the track and into the tyre wall. The team suspect the crash was caused by a car failure.

"We were planning to run a very short first stint, and with the car light on fuel, I made a good start," explained Kovalainen.

"I went right on the way to turn 1, hoping it would then give me the inside line through the next corner, and was running alongside (Toyota's) Ralf Schumacher. I think Fisico got hit because his car suddenly moved over, setting off a chain reaction and Ralf hit my car.

"At first, I thought the front left suspension was broken, but as I drove back to the pits I thought it was maybe just a puncture. That proved to be the case, so we fuelled the car longer and went back out.

"Unfortunately, the time I had lost put me right in a group of cars lapping me, so I drove with blue flags all the time for the first stint: I was quicker than the guys in front, but because they were a lap ahead, I had to let them all past! Eventually, I got out of the traffic, and was just looking to bring the car home to the finish.

"But then, going through turn 2 I felt a vibration at the left rear, and as I lifted off, the back end snapped and put me in the wall. It's a real shame to retire like this and not manage to finish all the races, but that's the way it goes.

"All I want to do now is move on to the next challenge: firstly the New York Marathon in November, and then focusing on next year.

"If I want to become world champion, which is my aim, I need to be even better prepared mentally and physically than I was this year. I want to start working towards that goal as soon as I possibly can."