Editing Renault in Formula One (section)

==== A season of mixed form (2008) ====
[[File:Singapore grand prix 2008 alonso win.jpg|thumb|237x237px|[[Fernando Alonso]] cruising to victory at the [[2008 Singapore Grand Prix]].]]
It was announced on 10 December 2007 that [[Fernando Alonso]] would rejoin with Renault F1 for {{F1|2008}}. Alonso drove alongside promoted test driver [[Nelson Piquet Jr.]] and was believed to have secured number one status within the team. The team similarly started in 2008 as the year before; Fernando Alonso managed to garner fourth at the opening [[2008 Australian Grand Prix|Australian Grand Prix]] as a result of a mistake from a previous Renault employee Heikki Kovalainen. However, the form was still short of 2006 by a large degree over the first half of the 2008 season. The team brought new parts to the [[2008 Spanish Grand Prix|Spanish Grand Prix]], including a new engine-cover, dubbed the "Shark-fin", similar to the one introduced by Red Bull on their [[Red Bull RB4|RB4]]. Alonso managed to qualify on the front row for that race on a light fuel-load, yet retired with an engine failure halfway through. Alonso's front row qualifying performance in Spain was a rare moment of achievement from the former World Champion. Both cars retired at the [[2008 Canadian Grand Prix|Canadian Grand Prix]] and [[Nelsinho Piquet|Nelson Piquet Jr.]], who retired from six of the first nine races, failed to score until the [[2008 French Grand Prix|French Grand Prix]].

The [[2008 German Grand Prix|German Grand Prix]] heralded a change in the team's fortune. Piquet Jr. benefited from the deployment of the safety car to secure Renault's first podium of the year with a second. Both drivers scored at the [[2008 Hungarian Grand Prix|Hungarian Grand Prix]] although they failed to pick up anything at Valencia two weeks later. Two fourth places for Alonso in Belgium and Italy were a prelude to the [[2008 Singapore Grand Prix|Singapore Grand Prix]], in which Alonso profited from the early crash of his teammate (later revealed to be a deliberate crash to aid the Spaniard. See: [[Renault Formula One crash controversy]]) to claim his first victory of the season, and Renault's first since the [[2006 Japanese Grand Prix]]. This victory made Alonso and Renault the first-ever winners of a Formula One race held under floodlights. Renault underlined their return to the front at the subsequent [[2008 Japanese Grand Prix|Japanese Grand Prix]], in which Alonso steered clear of [[Lewis Hamilton]]'s first-corner mistake to record another win. Piquet Jr. finished fourth in the team's best performance of the season. Further double points finish in [[2008 Chinese Grand Prix|China]] was followed by Alonso's second-place finish at the season-ending [[2008 Brazilian Grand Prix|Brazilian Grand Prix]]. The [[Renault R28]] was believed by many insiders to have overtaken [[BMW in Formula One|BMW Sauber]] by season's end as the closest challenger to the domination of the sport by Ferrari and McLaren. {{Citation needed|date=April 2009}}