Briatore urges Renault not to panic

Fernando Alonso and Giancarlo Fisichella endured their worst race of the season so far as they failed to finish on the podium.

But Briatore does not want his team to get too alarmed by what happened this weekend.

"The important thing after a difficult weekend like this one is to stay calm," said Briatore. "We are still leading both championships but we are in a tough fight, as we expected at the start of the season.

"This was a difficult weekend for the whole team from beginning to end, and Fernando and Giancarlo did a great job to bring the cars home in the points. Now, we need to regroup at Enstone and Viry, analyse with Michelin what happened this weekend, and push hard to get back on top in Budapest."

Renault directory of engineering Pat Symonds added: "It goes without saying that this was an extremely difficult race for us.

"We have not had the pace we would have wanted all weekend, and the tyre management in the race was even more difficult than anticipated with both drivers experiencing severe blistering at different points.

"With the next race only one week away, we need to use the coming days to make careful analysis of what has happened this weekend, and do everything in our power to rectify the situation for Hungary."