An eighth and tenth place performance in qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix puts the team in a great position come race day.
They might have been overshadowed by an impressive Pierre Gasly and disappointing McLaren, but Renault look to be well placed to score decent points in the second round of the year in Bahrain.
Both Nico Hulkenberg and Carlos Sainz were able to get into the final part of qualifying and are set up to impress on Sunday evening.
“I would prefer to be fifth, but in Q3 things seemed to slip from our hands a little." said Hulkenberg.
"My Q2 lap was wonderful, it was as good as it was going to get, but in Q3 it didn’t feel quite there. I couldn’t repeat the lap time otherwise we’d be in fifth.
"I think we’ll start seventh and we have every chance for a good result from there tomorrow. Our race-pace was similar to our rivals, but our target is to beat them.”
He might have been out-qualified for the second race in a row but the Spaniard is remaining positive for tomorrow's race.
“I’ve been chasing car balance the whole weekend and I wasn’t fully comfortable with the car during qualifying, finding it difficult to put a perfect lap together tonight.
"However, I’ve been happier with the long runs and there are a lot more possibilities during the race, especially with the tyre degradation that we’ve seen at the moment.
That opens up a lot more windows so we’ll be ready for it. I’m convinced we can move up the grid tomorrow and have a good one.”
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