After finishing in sixth place at the United States Grand Prix, Nico Hülkenberg said that the Renault Sport Formula 1 Team have proved that they are still “very competitive”.
Hülkenberg’s finish, alongside team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr.‘s seventh place, helped Renault to their biggest haul of points since their return as a works constructor three seasons ago. Additionally the 14 points scored, alongside Kevin Magnussen‘s disqualification from ninth, helped the French marque extend their lead over the Haas F1 Team to 22 points in the fight for fourth in the Constructors’ Championship.
“Today saw the best team result since I’ve been with Renault so I’m happy for that,” beamed Hülkenberg. “It was a very good job from everyone involved with the team.
“We demonstrated that the race pace of our car is very decent and we’re still very competitive.”
The German was the only Renault driver to make it into Qualifying 3 at the Circuit of the Americas, setting the seventh best lap time and outqualifying Sainz Jr. for the tenth time this season. Hülkenberg said that the good Saturday performance, partnered with narrowly avoiding the spinning Sebastian Vettel on lap one, proved to be vital in setting up the race.
Hülkenberg took advantage of future team-mate Daniel Ricciardo‘s early retirement to move into the top six.
“It also illustrated how important it is to have a strong qualifying position and a clean first lap,” added Hülkenberg.
“Everything is still possible for us and we took a great bunch of points. It was a very satisfying feeling today, but we have three races left so we need to keep the good work coming.”
The result ended a run of four successive retirements at CoTA for Hülkenberg and equalled his 2013 performance as his best finish in Texas to date.
