A Fortunate Gamble: Interview with Nelson Piquet

This was supposed to be a season where the top six places in each race were going to be locked out by Ferrari, McLaren and BMW Sauber. The chances of anyone else getting near a podium seemed remote, to say the least.

And yet look at the last four races - a third for David Coulthard and Red Bull, a third for Jarno Trulli and Toyota, a third for Rubens Barrichello and Honda, and finally, and without a doubt the least likely, a second for Nelson Piquet and Renault. And this in a race where there was no rain, and all six of the front-running cars finished, having had no incidents or delays of any kind. It was one of the most extraordinary results we've seen in a while.

It happened, of course, because of the fortuitous timing of the safety car, but Piquet had to get the job done in the closing laps. Given his recent bad luck, and the pressure he was under especially after throwing away points finishes in the wet in Monaco and Silverstone, it was a miraculous outcome.

After he qualified a so-so 17th, it was the team that took the view that Nelson should run an ultra-long first stint. It's not an unusual strategy for someone who has a quick-ish car but is stranded near the back, but there's no guarantee that it will achieve very much.

It's also risky for the driver, because a heavy load means he could lose ground in the opening laps and look embarrassingly slow. If he happens to retire before the pitstop reveals the burden that he's been carrying, his reputation will sink even further.

Renault took a 'nothing to lose' view, on the basis that something might happen to help Nelson's cause. There was even a threat of rain in the air - dark clouds continued to sail close by the track for the duration of the race - so it was worth a punt. Nelson himself wasn't so sure.

Nelsinho Piquet deep in the field during the opening laps © LAT

"Before the race I was suggesting other ideas that wouldn't help me very much in the race," he says. "The team deserved this result, because it wasn't my decision. We would have finished in the back. I preferred having a short first stint, fighting with the guys around me. I knew I was going to be quicker than them, and then doing a second long one and then a short one at the end.

"The boys in the team said, 'Look, let's just got for a first long one, and then we can decide if we go for a two stopper or a one stopper.' As we were starting 17th, I didn't want to say too much, because they were a bit angry with qualifying already! So I said 'OK, let's go with that'. Luckily, it was perfect."

In fact his worst fears were realised, because in that first stint he found the car a real handful on the hard tyre and with a fuel load to run for what turned out to be 35 laps.

He lost a place to Rubens Barrichello off the line and for the first part of the race he followed Kazuki Nakajima, who was six laps lighter. He gained a place when the Williams man made a mistake on lap 17, and then as the pit stops began, he just kept ploughing on round.

"It was hard to believe, because in the first stint with the hard tyres I had a hard time holding the rears, and the car was really everywhere. The team asked me how does the car feel and I didn't know what to say because I had understeer and oversteer, and the car was difficult under braking and traction.

"Because of the burnouts and the start and everything the rear tyres went. I pushed the front tyres a lot and it was not good for them. It was difficult in the beginning, the car was sliding a lot. It was nearly undriveable and I was struggling to keep up with the Hondas.

"I don't know how it is with other cars, but with ours the first stint it's always heavy, and because of the start and everything the rears overheat, and they're worn a bit more. It's a normal trend that throughout the race you get more rubber on the track and when you put the soft tyres on, it gets better and better."

After Barrichello pitted on lap 31, only Piquet had still to come in. At that point he was 12th, but it was clear he would lose a bunch of places when he stopped. The only thing that might fall in his favour was that he alone still had the option to make this a one-stop race, the team having kept both options open. That might gain him a few spots.

On lap 35 the team was finally ready for his stop. There were still 32 laps to run, so it was going to be a long haul for the soft tyres if he did fuel to the end. And then an incredible thing happened - Timo Glock crashed on the pit straight.

The damaged Toyota of Timo Glock © XPB

Piquet was running four places, and around ten seconds, behind Glock at the time and pretty much as the Toyota slid to a halt, he was down the pit entry road. In fact he had to dodge through a pile of debris that had cleared the wall. I was standing very close to the spot, next to the inner pit wall, and had watched in warped fascination as large chunks of carbon-fibre floated out of the sky.

"That was the lap to come in, so it was perfect, a very lucky day," continued Piquet. "Obviously the crash happened at exactly the right moment for me. With these safety car rules everybody gets lucky sometimes, and today was my day."

It was instantly obvious that the safety car would come out, and that meant the pit lane would be closed. But the rules state that if you are in the pit entry when that happens, you can stop and refuel without penalty.

There is always a little margin after any incident occurs and that gave Piquet some extra leeway. Once race director Charlie Whiting makes that decision, he first tells the clerk of the course to tell the marshals' posts to display SC boards and yellow flags. Only then is the safety car actually dispatched and as it starts moving, the 'Safety Car Deployed' message appears on the timing screens. At that point the pit lane is closed for refuelling.

The FIA uses a camera and its GPS positioning system to verify whether cars were indeed safely in the pit entry and because he was only ten seconds behind the incident, Piquet was actually safe by a comfortable margin.

That wasn't the case for Jenson Button, who came into the pits 36s behind Piquet. Honda knew he could not refuel, but he was so unhappy with the tyres he was on they felt it was worth an extra stop. He also forfeited his right to get his lap back, but that's a whole other story.

Piquet was coming in anyway, but could anyone else have reacted in time and snuck into the pits? Bourdais was right behind Nelson, and it was probably too late for him as, like the Renault man, he was probably right on top of the pit entry as the accident finished.

Without studying the FIA's own video footage it's difficult to know for sure, but I suspect that David Coulthard might have made it had Red Bull reacted the instant they saw the crash. He was around 11s behind Piquet, or 21s behind Glock. Remember, you only have to be across the line on the way to the pit entry, which at Hockenheim is in the middle of the final turn, and there is always that delay before the pit lane closes.

Anyway, Piquet did a normal pit stop and took on fuel for the remaining 32 laps. He also went on to the soft tyre. Everyone else was still running at racing speed on their way round to the start/finish straight, where Bernd Maylander was waiting.

Nelsinho Piquet pits before the safety car is deployed © LAT

He would have been lapped by leader Hamilton had the McLaren not had to slow to line up behind the safety car. As it was, he was now last of the cars on the lead lap in the queue, in 14th place. It stayed that way for a couple of laps until the pit lane opened and, at the end of lap 38, just about everyone else dived into the pits.

In the excitement caused by the Glock crash it was very easy to miss what Renault had done, but those stops revealed the true picture. At the front of the queue now were Hamilton, Button (a lap down after making that extra stop which the TV also missed), Heidfeld and Piquet. It was obvious that Hamilton and Heidfeld still had final stops to make and suddenly Nelson's situation looked remarkably good.

But lined up behind him were Massa, Kubica, Kovalainen, Trulli, and Vettel. When the green flew at the start of lap 42, he had 25 laps to try to keep at least some of those guys behind, because they were also now all fuelled to the end. It seemed likely to be a case of fighting to hang on to seventh, or maybe eighth, as they all picked him off.

And yet from somewhere Piquet found the speed to keep them all at a safe distance.

"I just said 'don't touch the car, let's just put the soft tyres on and see what happens'. Lucky enough with the soft tyres the car was a different story.

"It was incredible, much quicker, much better, I could push much more. The degradation was much less. It's something for us to look at on the data, because the car was really fantastic.

"When I put the soft tyres on I knew I had to push to the end, and I knew I was in a good position. I knew I had to be gentle with them and I knew I would have to keep them to the end, so I kept them cool and the car was good until the end.

"Obviously I was pushing, but I was making sure I wasn't locking the fronts. I put the brake bias a bit to the rear just not to lock the fronts and have a flat spot. I just kept it safe on the track."

We watched in amazement as Massa and co failed to make any impression on the Renault. Then on lap 50, Hamilton pitted, and three laps after that, Heidfeld came in for a second time. With 14 laps to go, Nelson was leading. Heidfeld was now out of the picture, while Hamilton was around 4.5s back and flying. He was clearly going to catch up but he had the small matter of getting past Massa, who was riding shotgun for countryman Piquet. This looked really interesting.

"To be honest, the feeling I had was good. Not because I was leading the race, but because I knew I could finish on the podium if I continued quick until the end. But I would have to push until the end of the race. Lewis was a bit difficult to keep back because he had a quick car this weekend, but Felipe had a few troubles with his car and I was able to maintain the gap until the end."

Nelsinho Piquet is overtaken by Lewis Hamilton for the lead © LAT

Given his unfortunate record this year, and the enormous pressure he was under, even Piquet's biggest supporters could be forgiven for thinking that he would now crack or screw up in some way. Perhaps even Flavio Briatore was resigned to such an outcome. But urged on by his engineer, he played things exactly right.

"They said Lewis is coming up behind you, keep a quick pace. But when I saw the speed he was coming up behind me there was no reason to hold him up that much, because either we were going to crash or Felipe was going to catch us and I was going to lose second place. So I just kind of held him a little bit, but he was much quicker. I just wanted to finish a safe second."

He did just that, leaving Massa and the rest behind. The result could not have come at a better time for Piquet, who has clearly been up against it lately. What's perhaps even more important is whether he's able to use this performance as a springboard to better things over the next couple of races, while his future is determined. With Alonso's preferred destination for next year anything but clear, we have little clue about what Briatore's game plan might be.

The funny thing is that after qualifying Alonso couldn't resist a little dig at Piquet when asked if Renault had improved: "My team mate is 17th, so I don't know if we've made a step forward here or not."

He may be struggling on Saturday afternoons, but don't forget that Piquet actually passed Alonso in the previous two races in France and Britain. And this time it was the Spaniard who had a late spin and was left looking very ordinary.

Piquet himself is sensible enough to realise that he still has a lot of convincing to do.

"Obviously it doesn't mean a lot, I was lucky today," he said. "I deserved it, but it was not something where I really pushed and got the second place. You're not going to expect a second place again in Hungary. I was really lucky and the team did a good job.

"I'm a bit calmer. It gives a lot more credibility to the mechanics and engineers who were pushing since the beginning of the year very much. For sure, the team need the points, and I think we still need more points."