• Turkish Grand Prix

Petrov puts puncture down to bad luck

Fernando Alonso consoles Vitaly Petrov after the race © Sutton Images

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• Race:
• Turkish Grand Prix

• Championship:
• FIA Formula One World Championship

• Drivers:
• Fernando Alonso
• |
• Vitaly Petrov

• Teams:
• Ferrari
• |
• Renault

Renault's Vitaly Petrov has put his puncture when fighting Fernando Alonso in the closing stages of the Turkish Grand Prix down to bad luck.

Petrov was in eighth place after one of his strongest drives of the season, but came under attack from Alonso towards the end of the race. The pair were side-by-side through the first three corners but Alonso cut across the Renault on the entrance to turn four, puncturing Petrov's tyre and knocking the Russian rookie out of the points. However, Petrov did not blame the Ferrari driver and admitted to a small mistake that accounted for the contact.

"At the end of the race my tyres were really worn when I was fighting with Alonso," he recalled. "He tried to go around the outside of me in turn three and my car pushed to the outside so we made contact which caused the puncture. It's bad luck and I'm disappointed to miss out on scoring points, but there are a lot of positives from this race because the car has the pace to fight in the top ten. Hopefully we can be strong in Canada as well and I can score some points there."

Alonso said he was sorry that Petrov was not able to finish in the points but said he had to be aggressive for the sake of his championship campaign.

"At the end, I attacked Petrov and I hope the two points this brought me could turn out to be useful come the end of the year: I am sorry he got a puncture that stopped him finishing in the points, because he drove a good race," he said. "Despite everything, we are still in a good position to fight for the title. However, now is the time to react."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.