• Singapore Grand Prix

Renault's performance was 'embarrassing' - Boullier

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• News:
• Exhausts cost performance - Allison
  

• Race:
• Singapore Grand Prix

• Championship:
• FIA Formula One World Championship

• Drivers:
• Eric Boullier
• |
• Vitaly Petrov
• |
• Bruno Senna

• Teams:
• Renault

Renault team principal Eric Boullier has described his team's performance at the Singapore Grand Prix as embarrassing.

Renault scored its worst result of the year at the Marina Bay circuit after qualifying 15th and 18th and finishing 15th and 17th. Both Bruno Senna and Vitaly Petrov struggled for traction out of Singapore's low-speed corners all weekend, and problems in the race - a brush with the wall for Senna and a KERS failure for Petrov - did not help matters.

"Coming to Singapore, we knew that we were in for a tough weekend," Boullier said. "The R31 was never suited to street circuits and there were very few reasons to hope this might change here. However, we never expected our performance to be so embarrassing. Seeing our cars so low in the classification today, clearly struggling for grip among blue flags, was a painful experience."

Senna hit the wall on his outlap after his first tyre change and had to return to the pits immediately for a new nose cone. Technical director James Allison said his performance after that had offered something of a positive during an otherwise miserable race.

"Today's race was 61 laps of misery to cap off a weekend of disappointment," Allison said. "We did not start today with high hopes; poor pace and high tyre degradation during the race simulation runs on Friday are not good weapons to take into the race and our cars suffered accordingly.

"Bruno nudged the wall after his first tyre stop which left him in last place after stopping to replace the damaged wing. Thereafter he showed good fighting spirit to get back to 15th place. Although it has been highly reliable in races hitherto, Vitaly was additionally hampered by loss of his KERS early on which made it very tough for him to overtake."

Boullier expects the team to be back on form at the Japanese Grand Prix on the high-speed Suzuka circuit.

"In these conditions, it is difficult to draw any positive from the race apart from the flawless job made by the organisers of the Grand Prix, who have definitely produced one of the best venues on the calendar. We will all forget this race quickly and turn our focus to Suzuka, where the track's quick corners should make us smile again."

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