NELSON PIQUET JNR

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Piquet Jr: I never felt under pressure

Thursday 26th June 2008

Nelson Piquet Jr says he never felt as if his Renault seat was under threat despite reports claiming he was on the verge of being axed.

Prior to the French GP the Brazilian was reportedly under threat to improve or risk being replaced at the team. The rumours even went as far as to name former Super Aguri driver Takuma Sato and GP2's Romain Grosjean as possible replacements.

Piquet, though, finally got it right in France, scoring his first two points of the campaign and putting an end to the speculation surrounding him - not that it had bothered him.

"No, I don't think so," he told ITV when asked if he'd ever thought Renault would drop him.

"I don't think Renault... it happened the same thing last year with Heikki (Kovalainen) and Renault didn't do anything.

"The whole press, the whole bulls**t that they talk about, nothing happened, absolutely nothing happened and I think a team cannot work that way by judging and kicking out people and putting (someone else) back (in)."

The 22-year-old went on to say that he wasn't entirely responsible for his lack of points in the build-up to the Magny-Cours race.

"I knew what I could prove; I knew what I was doing," he said.

"The car broke down quite a few times - okay, I did a mistake in Barcelona and I wasn't quick enough in Turkey - but I had a few problems in Canada, brake problems, and I could have finished in the points quite easily.

"So I mean a lot of races the car broke down where I could have arrived [in the points] maybe.

"So it was just a matter of time of getting a well set-up car and a track I was a bit more comfortable on and having the car to finish the race."

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