ANDREETHERINGTON18 APRIL 2019 AUTOSPORT.COM 25CHINESE GP RACE CENTREahead of Albon before the stops, stopped
a lap after and was jumped as a result,
moving Albon up another spot.
Team-mate Daniil Kvyat lost time earlier to
a drivethrough penalty and also made his stop
later than Albon, which dropped him behind.
Albon overtook Giovinazzi again and then took
11th from Kevin Magnussen’s Haas. Albon
moved into the final points place when
Romain Grosjean’s Haas made its second stop.
Despite running to the end, Albon held
off Grosjean – who lost time late on to a
blue flag for Charles Leclerc – to take his
second points finish in three starts and
earn the fan accolade of ‘driver of the day’.
“Saturday I was maybe worst driver
of the day,” said Albon, “so it was nice to
come back strong.”
DANIEL RICCIARDO
RENAULT DRIVERAfter a difficult start to his
Renault career, Daniel
Ricciardo picked up his first
points of 2019 with seventh
place, having qualified at the
front of the midfield. He ran
seventh from the start and kept
Racing Point driver Sergio Perez
behind him throughout.A good result, but you didn’t have
perfect tyres at the end...
We were the only car to do it soft-hard,
and considering in Bahrain we tried it
and it didn’t work, I’m happy we made
it work today. It wasn’t easy – Perez was
actually really quick and pushed me the
whole race. I was trying to manage the
game, then he was coming, so I just had to
go. Towards the end it was starting to get a
bit tricky, but I think he was also suffering.How was the stint on the last tyre?
I definitely think we managed it well. Part
of me was wanting the tyres to drop off
quickly, so I could say, ‘Guys, let’s do a
two-stop.’ But they were not dropping off,
so I was like, ‘OK, let’s just try to push this.’
So I knew we had to go a long way with
the hard. I was a little bit nervous, but
I’m happy we made it work.Q&AAfter difficulties in
Australia and Bahrain,
is it positive that you’ve
proved Renault is at the
front of the midfield?
That’s certainly positive for us.
I was a bit surprised by Perez’s
race pace. Ideally we want to
stretch the gap to the others,
but he had a strong one. So I think there are
areas we can still improve. But, generally
speaking, if we put the weekend together
we should be at the front of that group.How big a boost is it for you personally
to finally get a result for Renault?
It feels good, probably just for my guys in
the garage as on my side we hadn’t seen
a chequered flag yet. It’s good they can
fly home with a little smile on their face.You talked about a different approach
in practice after what you learned in
the Bahrain test, so did that pay off?
I think so. It always helps when P1 goes
smoothly, and I don’t know if that’s luck or
good preparation pre-race, but the set-up
was there. We didn’t have to change too
much over the weekend, and I felt like I
could build on myself as opposed to learn
the car by changing this and that. I think
some of those things we learned from
the test in Bahrain. So hanging back
for that was positive.Another MGU-K failure for Hulkenberg
Nico Hulkenberg suffered his second
successive MGU-K-related failure
when he retired after 16 laps with
a software problem.
Renault was forced to produce a new-
specification MGU-K after McLaren’s
Carlos Sainz Jr suffered a failure in the
Australian Grand Prix, with the works
team running it for the first time in Spain
after a double retirement in Bahrain.
“We had to push massively on
production, which meant we had to
fast-track some of the process and
sign-off that we do,” said Renault F1boss Cyril Abiteboul. “Something was
triggered that we had not had the time
to properly sign off.”
Hulkenberg started eighth and ran ninth
in the early stages after slipping behind the
fast-starting Sergio Perez. He was 15th
after an early first pitstop when he retired.ALL PHOTOGRAPHY