25/05/2019
NEWS STORY
Renault F1 Team will line up for tomorrow's Monaco Grand Prix from sixth, the team's highest grid slot of the year so far. Daniel Ricciardo initially qualified in seventh, but a penalty for Pierre Gasly elevated him to sixth.
Nico Hulkenberg lines up eleventh, narrowly missing out on Q3 by just 0.062secs.
Nico Hulkenberg: "I felt the car had the potential for Q3 today, so it's a little disappointing to just miss out in eleventh place. It was very tight out there. Maybe I was pushing too hard, overdriving the car in places here and there, but that's only little things. I started in eleventh last year and we still managed to score decent points so we can be encouraged by that. We'll bring the biggest boxing gloves we have and aim to have a fight tomorrow! We have some options on strategy with the free tyre choice so we'll see and go from there."
Daniel Ricciardo: "I'm happy with the end result, especially with where we started on Thursday. We made some brave changes to the car even after FP3, but that worked and going that extra mile has paid off. The team made a strong recovery today and we can be pleased with that. We got into a good rhythm from Q1 all the way through to Q3, which is so important here as qualifying is so significant. Some variables tomorrow could make it interesting and I wouldn't be disappointed if I wake up to rain! But, wet or dry, I'll be ready."
Alan Permane, Sporting Director: "We can be very pleased with P7, but in some respects, it's a little bittersweet as we felt we had the pace to get both cars through to Q3. Nico only just missed out; he had some locking into Turn 8 and Turn 10, but it is difficult to get the perfect lap in Monaco. It was a very good turnaround from the drivers and their respective engineering teams to get back on the pace after a disappointing Thursday. We will be keeping one eye on the weather tomorrow as it may well rain, but we will hope for a clean race to get both cars into the points."
Check out our Saturday gallery from Monaco, here.