12/11/2017
NEWS STORY
Renault Sport Formula One Team's Nico Hulkenberg returned to the points with a tenth position finish in a fast-paced and hot Brazilian Grand Prix, whilst Carlos Sainz crossed the line just one position and 6.5 seconds behind. Both cars lost a position at the start and thereafter ran clean races without issue.
Nico started the race from P7 on his qualifying Supersoft (red) Pirelli tyres, stopping on lap 30 to change to a new set of Soft (yellow) tyres. Carlos started from P8 and stopped a lap later than Nico for the same Supersoft to Soft swap.
Nico Hulkenberg: "It's good to get my first point since Spa although it was pretty much an uneventful race. We lost places at the start and with Hamilton and Ricciardo coming through it was a tough ask to move up the order. On the one side, it's good to have finished the race, on the other side we did lack pace today. I was pushing flat out, so it's a shame we couldn't do more. My focus is now on a final flourish in Abu Dhabi."
Carlos Sainz: "I had a very good start but unfortunately I did get a bit of damage to my floor after being pushed wide by Felipe. After that, I had a super-quick pit stop from my guys but there wasn't much we could do to work up the order as it was pretty much a procession. The car felt okay today but we were lacking a bit of pace. However, I would say the race was quite positive as I made a good start and I was able to accumulate another 71 valuable laps in the car. Just one more race to go and I'll be going all out for points in Abu Dhabi as I was disappointed not to score here."
Cyril Abiteboul, Managing Director: "Our focus was on reliability for this weekend and we saw three Renault-powered cars finish in the top ten and five cross the finish line. This better reliability unfortunately came at the expense of performance, as were clearly running below our potential pace. Our race result was decided on the first lap, with both drivers losing position and then Ricciardo and Hamilton moving up the order. There were no opportunities to gain position thereafter."
Check out our Sunday gallery from Interlagos, here.