Renault: No Regrets over Strategy

The French car manufacturer opted to give Alonso a longer second stint in the race in a bid to cover the tactics adopted by title rival Kimi Raikkonen - and that meant he lost out on the chance to leapfrog Montoya at the first stop.

And even though with hindsight a different strategy may well have helped Alonso grab the win, Renault's director of engineer Pat Symonds says that the team have no regrets about what they did.

"Ever since we tested here a few weeks ago, we knew our fight at this circuit would be with McLaren and this weekend, we very much took the fight to them," explained Symonds.  "Strategically, we had to cover Raikkonen with Fernando's stops, even though we knew that would leave us exposed to being beaten by Montoya.

"Even so, it was the right thing to do for the Championship."

Team boss Flavio Briatore believes that the lack of blue flags being shown to backmarkers had more to do with Alonso's failure to beat Montoya than their strategy decision.

"To leave Silverstone having seen Fernando extend his lead over Raikkonen by two points is a fantastic result for us," he said. "The team put in an excellent performance this weekend, and we never thought that the car would be so competitive here.

"In my opinion, Fernando missed the win because the blue flags were not being shown enough to the backmarkers, but this happens sometimes. McLaren were very competitive today, Renault was too, and I think we put on a good show."