Renault defend Nelsinho's F1 start

NELSON PIQUET JNR

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Monday 7th April 2008

Renault have come out in defense of Nelson Piquet Jr after he suffered his second retirement of the season in Sunday's Bahrain GP.

Piquet Jr has had a difficult introduction to Formula One as Renault struggle with pace. However, mistakes on the rookie's part haven't helped either, although both his retirements were the result of his car's poor reliability.

The latest, which befell him on Sunday in Bahrain, was a gearbox problem, which saw him stopping out on track just moments after his second pit stop.

But despite his disappointing results, Renault's head of engineering Pat Symonds reckons Piquet Jr has a better to the season than it may appear to those outside the team.

"I think he has had a damn good start," Symonds said. "It's been rocky, but that only goes to emphasise how good he's been.

"Before the start of the season a lot of people were wondering how it would go and when he had a very difficult Australian GP it probably just served to focus on 'Was it all going to go wrong?'

"But he bounced back in Malaysia very strongly and he has been extremely strong here. I know ultimately that Fernando (Alonso) outqualified him but that is nothing to be ashamed of.

"Through practice Nelson was doing a damn good job in developing the car and really getting on with it, so I am very pleased with the start to his year other than the fact that I feel we as a team have let him down a bit."

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