F1: Renault going well 'til the wheel fell off
Renault had appeared to be in a state of grace on Saturday: their man Alonso was on pole for Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix, and two Renault powered Red Bulls were second and third fastest. Nelson Piquet, rumoured to be in his last weekend with the team, performed better than usual and the fact that both cars moved so far up the grid brought support for Piquet's argument that the problems have been with the car not with him.
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And when the race started, Alonso sprinted off - but within ten laps, he was being hauled in by Hamilton. Then Alonso came in for an early pit stop.
That was where it all started to go horribly wrong: the front right wheel was not fitted properly. As he left the pits, he had trouble turning the car, then the aero disk unwound its screw fittings and flew off, to be followed a few seconds later by the wheel.
Although Alonso got the car back to the pits, it was withdrawn.
The stewards decided that the incident was avoidable and that Alonso should not have been cleared to leave the pits with the wheel not fitted properly. Duh!
They also decided that Renault failed to tell Alonso about the problem. As if he did not notice that the car didn't steer, parts were falling off and the wheel was wobbly.
The penalty, they decided, was that Renault would be excluded from the next round of the Championship. Renault intend to appeal the decision.
And it is right that they should. Of course, the team should not release the driver until the car is safe. But one suspects that the penalty is, at least in part, a reaction to the Massa incident where he was hit on the head by a piece of flying debris and the Surtees incident where he was hit on the head with a flying loose wheel.
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