Renault
Kevin Magnussen
“In the first part of the race the track was very slippery and the balance was difficult as it was wet in places. You have to push from the beginning though and try to stay on track. We tried our best but unfortunately we were just not quick enough today. We suspected something might be wrong with the gearbox towards the end of the race so retired the car as a precaution. It’s just not been our day, but we’ll look through everything and come back stronger in Hungary.”
Jolyon Palmer
“Today wasn’t the result I wanted for my home race. It was going reasonably well on the wet tyres at the beginning of the race and then we did a good stop for the intermediate tyres. Things were looking up: I got ahead of Kevin and I was catching Romain Grosjean. When I pitted for slick tyres, I had a green light to go but the rear right wasn’t finished and I’d already started to leave the box. From then on I lost about a minute and then received a 10 seconds penalty for unsafe release. What happened was unfortunate but it could happen to anyone up and down the pitlane. We retired the car as there was a strange feeling with the gearbox, more as a precaution as at that stage we were two laps down. We’ll now investigate the problem thoroughly. I’m looking forward to the test this week and focussing on the next race weekend.”
Frederic Vasseur, Team Principal
“Not the best Grand Prix in our history. It was a difficult race for us and we will be looking into what caused a double retirement. Both Kevin and Jolyon had been driving well until then, but our pace was not strong enough today. We are testing next week and will be using that to ensure we are back on target for the next race.”
