Great satisfaction for Renault with both drivers in Q3
Renault had a very good qualifying session in Bahrain, with both drivers making it through to Q3. Nico Hülkenberg was once again 7th, while Jolyon Palmer recorded his best F1 session with his first Q3.
The smiles were out in the Renault garage after the qualifying session. Indeed, Nico Hülkenberg once again positioned himself as the best of the rest, finishing 7th, the first behind Mercedes, Ferrari, and Red Bull. The German did not hide his satisfaction: « It was one of my best qualifying laps along with my pole position in Brazil in 2010. This track is quite tricky for achieving a perfect lap, but I believe I extracted the maximum today. The team did an excellent job throughout the weekend, and I am very proud and happy about it. »
Nevertheless, he knows how to remain cautious since it’s not the first time he’s found himself in a good position, only to fall back in the rankings during the race. The latest example dates back to just last week when the strategy applied by the team pushed him out of the points. He hopes to be able to unlock his score for this season: « I am more cautious about tomorrow. Last time, we had a great qualifying before race events undid our work. We just need to continue our efforts and find Easter eggs. Good points will do the trick! »
For once, the other Renault driver also delivered a great performance as Jolyon Palmer managed to finish 10th in the session, something he had never achieved before. His previous best performance was a 13th place at Spa-Francorchamps and in Melbourne last year.
The Briton was therefore delighted to find that his work over the past few months was paying off: « This is the best qualification of my life. It’s great to dedicate a whole hour to this exercise and reach Q3 for the first time. I’m thrilled, especially since we were having difficulties so far in exploiting the car’s performance. I worked with my engineers and we made some changes that greatly improved the car before the qualifications. I didn’t do a fantastic lap in Q3, it could have been better, but we have a good chance to score points tomorrow. »
With two drivers in the top 10 on the grid, the goal can only be to score big points at the end of the race.
