2020 Formula 1 Pirelli British Grand Prix, Sunday

With the racedrawing to a close, the team was set for a good haul of points with Danieloccupying sixth and Esteban eighth. But debris left on the track in sector twomeant Valtteri Bottas and Carlos Sainz picked up punctures allowing bothdrivers to gain places. Daniel further benefitted after overtaking Lando Norrisjust before the incidents, before finishing just 1.1seconds from a podiumplace.

The resultmatches Daniel’s best finish in Renault colours – fourth in the 2019 ItalianGrand Prix – with Esteban claiming his best effort in Formula 1 since the 2018Italian Grand Prix.

After alightning start, Daniel gained two positions on the opening lap, progressingfrom eighth to sixth. Esteban was also out the blocks quickly – side by sidewith Daniel into the opening two corners – before maintaining ninth place bythe end of the first lap.

After an earlysafety car, both drivers remained out on Soft tyres. A second safety car on lap12 allowed the team to double stack both cars with Daniel first in for Hardsand Esteban immediately following suit for the same compound, with minimal timelost courtesy of a slick change from the pit crew.

The midfield fight from fifth through to tenth was tight throughout with Danieland Esteban showing solid race pace and looking set for a solid points haul.

Esteban managedto make his move on Lance Stroll for eighth before benefitting from Bottas andSainz’s punctures with Daniel diving for a late move on Norris to snatchfourth.

DanielRicciardo, started P8, finished P4:

“It was a crazyrace at the end, and it feels really cool to take fourth place. We made a goodstart, jumped up to sixth and we showed decent pace. At the safety car restartI was close to Carlos [Sainz] but didn’t have enough and that allowed Lando[Norris] to have a run on me and I missed out there. That was a bitfrustrating, but it came back to us at the end. The race really came alive andthat was really good. We had some pace at the end and I was able to get Landoand then Carlos had a problem. I saw Charles [Leclerc] getting closer and maybewith a couple more laps we could have had a podium! We have another chance nextweek. We were assisted by some chaos, but we were definitely a top six cartoday and that’s pleasing.”

EstebanOcon, started P9, finished P6:

“I’m very happywith today’s team result. It was very fun out there, lots of overtaking, lotsof fun battles and a fantastic result to finish it off. I think today shows howquick our car is in the race. It really felt awesome today and it was a strongperformance from the team. It’s a credit to everyone at Enstone and Viry fortheir hard work between Budapest and this race. We had a lot of discussions,and that’s really paid off today. It proves that we need to qualify further upto make our life easier on Sunday. We have another opportunity next week formore.”

Cyril Abiteboul, Team Principal:

“It was a very good result from a team perspective andone of our strongest since our return to Formula 1. It is particularly goodhere in Silverstone, a temple of the Formula 1 championship and one of the homeraces for the team. Clearly, there was a bit of help towards the end to gainpositions, but that should not take away from the very strong performance thatthe team has put in throughout the weekend. We had a decent Friday practice andthat meant both good preparation for qualifying with both cars in the top tenas well as critical learning about making the Hard tyre last in the race.Today, both drivers had a strong opening lap to have track position and then wedecided to stop both cars for Hards under the safety car, which the pit crewdid an excellent job on. We also had strong reliability and that’s so importantwhen we have eventful races like this one. After tracks where the carstruggled, Silverstone's layout confirmed the strengths and weaknesses of thecar. In particular we must keep working on high-speed corners as that’s ourweakness compared to direct rivals. We have made progress but we should notlose sight of our direct competitors nor of the competitiveness level ofMercedes in all circumstances.”