Renaults engineering chief Pat Symonds has backed the decision
by the rival Honda team to deliberately retire Jensons Buttons
stricken car from the Australian Grand Prix.
Button was running in fifth place when his engine suddenly let go
two corners from the finish.
But rather than attempting to coast across the finish line and
salvage some points, Button pulled off onto the grass on the
instructions of race engineer Andrew Shovlin.
The reason for the call, which may have cost Button three points,
was to avoid incurring a 10-place grid penalty for the engine
change that will be necessary before the San Marino Grand
Prix.
The FIA regulations allow penalty-free engine changes when the
failure has caused a drivers retirement from a grand prix.
Thats smart thinking, said Symonds.
I would have done the same thing.
Fry believes it was worth sacrificing the points in order to give
Button a chance of winning at Imola, where he took his first career
pole in 2004 and has gone well in recent years.
Fry revealed that the retirement was tactical when speaking to ITV
Sports Ted Kravitz but emphasized that it was a split-second
decision.
We need to look at the pros and cons, he said. It was a quick
call by the race engineer and we need to see if it was right
later.