Carlos Sainz slowed down by his MGU-K

At the end of the French Grand Prix, contested on the Paul Ricard circuit, Renault Sport F1 Team can congratulate itself on having placed its two R.S. 18s, entrusted to Nico Hulkenberg et Carlos Sainz in the top 10, thus gaining valuable points in the Manufacturers' championship.

But after an ideal start to the weekend, highlighted by a seventh place in qualifying for the Spanish driver, promoted to third after the melee at the first corner of the race.

If Sainz then fell back into the hierarchy in particular facing the two Ferrari SF71H by Kimi Räikkönen and Sebastian Vettel, the sixth place in sight was transformed into eighth position, following a technical problem at the very end of the Grand Prix.

“It’s a good result which leaves us a little unsatisfiedanalysis Cyril Abiteboul, director of Renault Sport Racing. Carlos was close to having the perfect weekend and I'm sorry thathe lost a well-deserved result due to MGU-K. »

“It hurts a little to end this way, admits for his part the son of the double world champion WRC. We had a great weekend from start to finish. We qualified well, we had a good start to quickly get into the top three and we were in control to finish sixth.

The pace was high in the second half of the race and we were doing well until this problem suddenly appeared. It cost us two to three seconds per lap. It’s a shame and I’m sorry for the whole team, because I think we really deserved to be the “best of the rest” today.

This can happen sometimes and this is my first reliability concern this season »

Discover the full report and analysis of the French Grand Prix, produced by our special correspondents at Paul Ricard, in issue 2171 of AUTOhebdo, available this evening in digital version and this Wednesday on newsstands.