Nico Hulkenberg accepted that Renault’s prospects of beating McLaren to fourth in the standings is ebbing away after it lost more ground at the Russian Grand Prix.
Renault and McLaren were closely matched during qualifying at the Sochi Autodrom, as its representatives made Q3, but Renault’s race unravelled early on.
Daniel Ricciardo sustained damage on the opening lap, which eventually led to his retirement, while Hulkenberg lost ground, was stymied by a slow service at his scheduled stop, as he finished 10th.
“It started with a poor start, poor first lap, I lost three or four positions, then I recovered one position,” said Hulkenberg.
“We wanted to undercut but the slow pit stop put us right back. In the midfield every tenth matters. If you lose a couple of seconds that is bad.
“I had to push on and use my tires a lot, which is then always difficult towards the end of the tyre life stint. Then there was the VSC that went against us too. Two guys sneaked by.
“So it kind of all unravelled against us. It’s unfortunate because I feel the car deserves much better.
“I had really good pace in the car but I could never really show it because I was always stuck behind someone. So a bit frustrated.
“On top of that the last 10 laps we lost some engine power so I could not keep up anymore. I missed Kevin [Magnussen] by one second with his five-second penalty.”
McLaren went on to record sixth and eighth respectively and now holds a 33-point advantage over Renault in the battle for fourth in the standings.
“We lost points again, I don’t know what the gap is now, maybe 30, but it is a lot of wood.
“And obviously every race that goes by and we don’t outscore them it gets more and more difficult.
“I wouldn’t…while we want to fight in the championship, we need to focus race by race and must try to get everything out of it. Stay clean and smooth and that is all we can do for now.”
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