•Renault Sport Formula One Team endured a difficult race at the Malaysia Grand Prix with driver Nico Hülkenberg finishing sixteenth overall.
•After spinning his car twice during the race, teammate Jolyon Palmer finished fifteenth.
Nico started the race from P8 on Supersoft (red) Pirelli tyres before pitting early in the race for a new set of Soft (yellow). He switched back to Supersofts after being forced to pit a second time for safety reasons.
Jolyon started the race from P12 on a new set of Supersoft tyres pitting once for a new set of Softs.
'It was a very a disappointing Sunday. It began with a start that wasn't fantastic, we lost a few positions in turn one but from then on we were on the back foot for the rest of the race. There were difficult situations, we got stuck in traffic and had to pit twice. I took some big risks to try and get ahead, it's a pity we couldn't show the speed and the potential of the car. We'll look to have a better race next Sunday.'
Jolyon Palmer, #30, R.S.17-03: Started P12, finished P15.
'The start of the race wasn't great I was then following Nico for a good part and there were a few good overtakes. After that I lost the car and I don't really know why, it came as a surprise and we pretty much lost the race from there. We move on and look ahead to next week.'
Cyril Abiteboul, Managing Director
'The team had a tough weekend that ended with a bad race. Apart from qualifying, we couldn't get the car working properly as we had done in previous races.
After a very poor first lap from both our cars, we were on the back foot and stayed there until the end of the race. We tried to be a bit more aggressive with Nico's strategy. We called him in early however that didn't work in our favour as we remained in traffic after the stop. His attempts to gain position increased the tyre degradation and meant we were forced to do a second pit stop for safety reasons. Jolyon was in a similar place to Nico before he spun his car twice which made him lose a few positions and ultimately led to bad results. It's the last time we want to see this and we will take the necessary measures to better understand our lack of performance this weekend. I am confident that we will recover and will be back on track in Suzuka.
On another note, I'd like to congratulate Red Bull Racing for the double-podium finish. It was a great effort from the whole team here in Malaysia and it's great to see our partner team succeed!'
Photo credit: Renault
posted on conceptcarz.com
Nico Hülkenberg, #27, R.S.17-04: Started P8, finished P16.
posted on conceptcarz.com
