Renault F1 Team secured ninth place and two points in a tense Monaco Grand Prix. Daniel Ricciardo had started from sixth on the grid, however an early pit stop strategy did not play out and the Australian finished in tenth, which was converted to ninth following the application of post-race penalties.

Nico passed the flag in P14 after an early incident involving Charles Leclerc. The Ferrari driver was racing from the back of grid but an ambitious move on Nico round the Rascasse clipped the back of the Renault and caused a right rear puncture. He pitted but got stuck behind a road block provoked by a spinning Williams and Alfa Romeo and then slower cars and was unable to make significant progress.

•Daniel started from sixth on used Pirelli's Soft (red) tyres, pitting on lap 11 for new Medium (yellow) tyres.

•Nico started on new Medium (yellow) tyres, pitting on lap 9 for new Hards (white).

Nico Hülkenberg, started P11, finished P14:

'Nothing went our way today. We made a decent start, kept it clean off the line and then we suffered a puncture after Charles Leclerc sliced my tyre open. Luckily, I didn't hit the wall, but the Safety Car meant everyone gained on me and from then, I was at the back of the train and it was difficult to recover from there. It's hard to take as the results today don't reflect the competitiveness level of Renault at the moment. With a clear track at the end, we showed very good pace. The car had more performance and potential than what the result showed. But that's racing sometimes, and we need to make the most of the opportunities in Canada.'

Daniel Ricciardo, started P6, finished P9:

Cyril Abiteboul, Team Principal:

'After the good qualifying yesterday, we thought a big part of the job had been done. Unfortunately, the single most important decision of the day was to stop Daniel under the safety car. It turned out to be the wrong one, on the basis that it gave McLaren the opportunity to execute a smart team strategy with Norris and Sainz. A small positive is that we return into the points, but the bigger positive is that the car has demonstrated its potential, not just on the short runs yesterday, but on the longer runs today. It's clearly a missed opportunity that does not reward the hard work of the team and the drivers to improve the competitiveness of the package.'

Photo credit: Renault
posted on conceptcarz.com

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