The first race of the 2008 season in Australia saw Piquet start 21st and damage his car in a collision on the opening lap. He finally retired on lap 31. This was exactly the same result as his father achieved in his first race at the German Grand Prix. Piquet qualified in 10th for the Spanish Grand Prix his first top 10 qualifying position of his career. Piquet scored his first points in F1 with a 7th-place finish at the French Grand Prix. He passed his team mate Alonso in the last few laps. At the German Grand Prix, finished in second place and his first podium finish.
Renault singed Piquet to a one-year contract for the season. His first race, in 2009 at Australia ended on lap 24 with brake failure. China was another disappointment. He spun several times, requiring two new nose cones for his car. He finished 16th and last, two laps down, in what team manager Flavio Briatore described as a "very, very bad race". His best race of the year was a tenth-place finish at Bahrain.
On 3 August 2009 Piquet confirmed that he had been dropped by Renault. He hit out hard at his former manager and team boss Briatore. He called him his 'executioner' and questioned Briatore's Formula One knowledge. Piquet also said the Renault boss favored teammate Fernando Alonso. Renault's test and reserve driver Romain Grosjean replaced Piquet for the rest of the season.
After Piquet left the Renault F1 team, the media started making claims about Piquet. They said that had crashed his car on purpose at the Singapore Grand Prix. They said he did this to benefit team-mate Fernando Alonso. Alonso had made an early pit stop, and was far behind the leaders. Alonso went on to win the race. At the time, Piquet had said the crash as a simple mistake.
Piquet told the FIA that it had been on purpose. He said had been asked by Renault team principal Flavio Briatore and engineer Pat Symonds to stage the crash. In return for his statement, Piquet was given immunity by the FIA. On 4 September 2009 Renault F1 was charged with conspiracy and race fixing. On 16 September, Renault announced they would not contest the charges, and that Briatore and team engineer Symonds had left the team.
Piquet has received criticism from many in the F1 community. BBC F1 commentator Martin Brundle suggested that Piquet Jr. was now unemployable in Formula One, saying that no team or sponsor would want to be associated with the Piquet family. Piquet decided to move to NASCAR for 2010.
Piquet made his stock car debut in the ARCA RE/MAX Series at Daytona International Speedway. He has made several races in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. He drove one race for Red Horse Racing. In his first truck race, Piquet was managed to score a sixth-place effort, the first Brazilian driver to finish in the top ten in the series history. Piquet announced that he would be competing in three races for Billy Ballew Motorsports. In August, he competed in the NASCAR Nationwide Series race at the Watkins Glen International road course. He finished seventh in his first start in the series.
Includes points scored by other Team Brazil drivers.
() (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in "italics" indicate fastest lap)
Hoy
Hoy is one of the Orkney Islands.
Battle of Pharsalus
The Battle of Pharsalus was the decisive battle of Caesar's Civil War. On 9 August 48 BC at Pharsalus in central Greece, Gaius Julius Caesar and his allies formed up opposite the army of the republic under the command of Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus ("Pompey the Great"). Pompey had the backing of a majority of senators, and his army significantly outnumbered the experienced Caesarean legions.
Although Pompey had a larger army, he knew that Caesar's troops were more experienced, and might win in a pitched battle. Instead, Pompey waited Caesar's troops out, attempting to starve them by cutting off Caesar's supply lines. Caesar made a near disastrous attack on Pompey's camp, and was forced to pull away to regroup.
Pompey did not immediately follow up on his success. An indecisive winter (49–48 BC) of blockade and siege followed. Pompey eventually pushed Caesar into Thessaly and, urged on by his senatorial allies, he confronted Caesar near Pharsalus. Pompey's allies disagreed with Pompey over whether to fight at Pharsalus. Pompey, who wanted to starve Caesar's soldiers, had his hand forced by his allies.
There was significant distance between the two armies, according to Caesar. Pompey ordered his men not to charge, but to wait until Caesar's legions came into close quarters. The idea was to tire Caesar's men before the battle started.
Seeing that Pompey's army was not advancing, Caesar's men, without orders, stopped to rest and regroup before continuing the charge. Caesar, in his history of the war, would praise his own men's discipline and experience, and questioned Pompey's decision not to charge.
When the lines joined, Labienus (Pompey's cavalry leader) ordered the cavalry to attack. At first they did well, then Caesar ordered his cavalry to withdraw. Light troops fiercely attacked Pompey's cavalry. The first line of the Pompeiian horse were panicked by the cohort's javelins and caused the entire cavalry to fall into disorder. When the cavalry retreated, Caesar's men slaughtered the light troops who supported them. They attacked Pompey's left flank and, rejoined by their cavalry, were able to get behind and attack Pompey's army from the rear. Caesar raised the pressure further by ordering his as yet uninvolved third line to relieve the front ranks. The remaining Pompeiian soldiers fled and soon the main battle was done.
Pompey retreated to his camp and ordered the garrison to defend it. Caesar urged his men to capture the enemy camp. They furiously attacked the walls. The Thracians and the other auxiliaries who were left in the camp defended bravely, but they were not able to fend off the enemy assault. Pompey fled with a group, claiming that he had been betrayed. Caesar had won his greatest victory, having lost only about 200 soldiers and 30 centurions.
Pompey fled from Pharsalus to Egypt, where he was assassinated on the order of Pharaoh Ptolemy XIII. Ptolemy XIII sent Pompey's head to Caesar in an effort to win his favor, but Caesar was not pleased with the gift. Pompey was the widower of Caesar's only daughter. Nor did Ptolemy take into account that Caesar was granting amnesty to many of the senators and their men, men who once considered him an enemy.
The Battle of Pharsalus ended the wars of the First Triumvirate. The Roman Civil War, however, was not ended. Pompey's two sons and the Pompeian faction led now by Labienus, survived and fought their cause in the name of Pompey the Great. Caesar spent the next few years 'mopping up' remnants of the senatorial faction. After finally completing this task, he was assassinated in a conspiracy arranged by Brutus and Cassius.
Battle of Philippi
The Battle of Philippi was the final battle in the Wars of the Second Triumvirate between the forces of Mark Antony and Octavian (the Triumvirate) against the forces of Julius Caesar's assassins Brutus and Cassius in 42 BC, at Philippi in the Roman province of Macedonia. The Second Triumvirate declared this civil war to avenge Julius Caesar's murder.
The battle consisted of two engagements in the plain west of the ancient city of Philippi. The first occurred on the first week of October; Brutus faced Octavian, while Antony's forces were up against those of Cassius.
At first, Brutus pushed back Octavian and entered his army's camp. But to the south, Cassius was defeated by Antony, and committed suicide after hearing a false report that Brutus had also failed. Brutus rallied Cassius' remaining troops and both sides ordered their army to retreat to their camps with their spoils. The battle was essentially a draw, but for Cassius' suicide. This deprived the Liberatores of their best commander.