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Abiteboul delighted with Renault's German Grand Prix

10:45, 24 Jul 2018

byBobby Vincent

Renault's Cyril Abiteboul is very pleased with the job his side did last weekend at the Hockenheimring.

Renault driver Nico Hulkenberg achieved his best result with the side and finished in fifth place in the mixed conditions in Germany.

Abiteboul believes that German Hulkenberg was spurred on by his home crowd at Hockenheim.

"It was a very eventful race in front of amazing crowd here at Hockenheim," Abitebould told The Checkered Flag.

"It probably gave extra focus and motivation for Nico and that's what he showed today.

"It would have been easy to make a mistake on the track, or make the wrong tyre call in the uncertain conditions. He, Mark Slade his engineer, and the whole team did an excellent job of staying on top of the conditions and making the right calls and execute them properly."

Carlos Sainz looked like he finished in the points as well, but a ten-second penalty meant that he dropped out of the points and into twelfth position.

Abiteboul feels as if the luck was just not with Sainz this weekend.

"We have the feeling that Carlos could have joined the party where Nico was as well with a good start, good pace and similar stops, but it just did not go his way," added Abiteboul.

"He also lost two positions with the 10-second penalty post-race.

"We need to better understand what happened there as it was a very busy race."