Daniel Ricciardo "seemed positive in the car" after first day of China

Renault had a reasonable day in the first practise sessions of the Chinese Grand Prix. Nico Hulkenberg finished FP1 in 12th and Fp2 in 5th and got some solid laps in for Renault. Daniel Ricciardo did well in FP1 by finishing 6th fastest and FP2 in 9th. The team will hope that they can put the Bahrain Grand Prix behind them and get both cars to finish high in the points to get their season back on track. 

“We can be pleased with our day," said Nico Hulkenberg. "It was smooth running for us across both sessions with no issues and we completed our programme as we expected.

"I felt positive and comfortable in the car today and I think that reflects in our lap times across both short and long runs. We still have a few areas to work on and some details to assess, but I feel today is a solid baseline to work off heading into Saturday.”

Daniel Ricciardo was also pleased with the day but knows that they need to improve. 

“It wasn’t a bad day for us if a little bit mixed," he said. "We got out the gates well this morning and it seemed quite positive in the car. This afternoon we tried a few things with balance.

"I felt we were closer to what we wanted in the morning, so we have a few things to work on and figure out ahead of tomorrow. Our short run pace looks like it belongs inside the top ten so tomorrow will be about piecing everything together and extracting some good one-lap pace.”