Carlos Sainz Jr believes his Renault team 'deserved' to be at the front of the midfield after the pace shown during the French Grand Prix.
The Spaniard ran as high as third in the opening stages of the race after avoiding the chaos in front of him at Turn 1, however, he was eventually caught by the frontrunners in the shape of Daniel Ricciardo and the Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel dropping him down to sixth-place.
In the final stages of the race, a technical issue meant a loss of power for Sainz was causing him to lose two-three seconds a lap, losing places to Kevin Magnussen and Valtteri Bottas in the process as he tried to bring the car home.
With the Virtual Safety Car at the end of the race to recover Lance Stroll's stricken Williams after a tyre blowout at Signes corner, Sainz' race was salvaged to bring the R.S.18 across the line in ninth-place.
"It hurts a little bit to end the race like that," he said. "We were having such a good weekend from start to finish. We had a strong qualifying, made a clean start running in the top three early on, and then controlling sixth.
"The second half of the race was fast-paced and we were managing it well until the sudden problem, which cost us two or three seconds a lap. It’s a shame and I feel sorry for the whole team, as I think we deserved to be best of the rest today.
"These things happen in racing, and it’s my first reliability issue of the year, so let’s move on and start preparing Austria."
Team-mate Nico Hulkenberg ran a different strategy by starting on the yellow-marked Soft tyre in an attempt to go deep into the race, more than his rivals around him, especially with the threat of rain in the air.
When the inclement weather failed to materialise, a final stint on the Ultrasoft tyres meant he was able to be fast enough at the end to secure Renault double points finish at their home race.
"It was good out there today, I’m happy to gain a few places and finish in the points," added the German.
"Lap one was interesting, just to survive was important as it was carnage everywhere. We were a little on the back foot yesterday, so ninth was probably the best we could achieve today.
"I had fun out there, though, making a couple of overtakes and enjoying a bit of racing. Carlos was on for a good result and it’s a pity he missed out on sixth as that would have been really good points for the team.
"Overall, we’ve gained points in the Constructors’ so that’s not too bad at all."
Renault remains fourth in the Constructors' Championship with 62 points.
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