Renault driver Vitaly Petrov was having yet another strong race on Sunday, this time at the Istanbul Park circuit in Turkey, the young Russian rookie in a points scoring position after starting in the top ten, that was until the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso made a p[ass on him for eighth place.

After holding the Spaniard at bay for some time, the Ferrari driver finally got through, however the manoeuvre saw the two cars touch and Vitaly’s Renault came off second best. This resulted in a puncture and a trip to the pits just a few laps from the end.

“Although I’m disappointed to miss out on points today, I really enjoyed the race and the car felt really good. During the race I thought there was a chance of rain, which would have made things interesting, but in the end it was very light and didn’t have a big impact on things. At the end of the race my tyres were really worn when I was fighting with Alonso,” he said.

“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.”

However, while points were out of the question, there was one consolation as he set the fastest lap of the race on his new soft Bridgestones....