Renault Wanted to Retire Fisichella

Fisichella's car was damaged on the opening lap after a collision with Takuma Sato. A broken rear wing endplate cost him downforce and, after the first pitstop the team discovered an excessive amount of rear brake wear.

The wear was so much that Briatore claims Renault wanted to retire him at one point of the race - but Fisichella refused to give up and was able to continue after adjusting the brake balance all the way forward to the front brakes.

Fisichella eventually went on to take fourth place after getting past Michael Schumacher in the closing stages of the race.

Speaking to Italian television, Briatore said: "Fisichella today had an incredible race. We wanted to retire him in the garage because he had an enormous problem with the brakes and it was a risk to let him keep racing but he didn't want to.

"With two laps to go we told him he could pass Michael so he did that too. Fisichella made absolutely no errors, a super race for him."

Fisichella was obviously overjoyed with the result, which comes after a disappointing run of races for the Italian.

"What a race," he said. "It was full of action, from start to finish, and with the problems we had, I think it was good to finish fourth.

"I had a good start, but there was no space to pass on the right-hand side and that meant my line into turn 1 was not ideal, so I was in a big bunch of cars at the next corners. On the run to the hairpin, Sato hit my car - although he has apologised now - and knocked off part of the rear wing.

"The handling felt strange for a few laps, and I lost more places before I could start pushing. I made some places at the first stop, then the engineers said to start looking after the rear brakes, so I was taking things easily, braking earlier than normal and just controlling my pace.

"Even so, we were quite worried about the wear and the brake balance was all the way forward at the end of the race! But two laps from the end, they said on the radio that I could try and overtake Michael and it was quite easy - he had tyre problems, and I was much faster than him.

"It was a good result for the team, but I still had the pace to do better."