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Abiteboul defends use of team orders during Canadian GP

Abiteboul defends use of team orders during Canadian GP

11-06-2019 13:32
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Jake Williams-Smith

Renault team principal Cyril Abiteboul has defended the team's use of team orders during the Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday.

Nico Hulkenberg was ordered to remain behind his teammate Daniel Ricciardo in the latter stages of the race in Montreal, with the team citing different strategies and need for a decent points haul as reason enough.

Speaking to media after the race, Abiteboul defended Renault's decision, explaining that ahead of the French Grand Prix, the team needed to secure a strong result.

"Daniel was on slightly older tyres than Nico, also because he had a go at a couple of fast cars, clearly his tyres were not in such a good shape," Abiteboul said

"Probably Nico would have had the pace to overtake him, but frankly we said 'we need that result'.

"I don't like to have to do that, it's not the style of the team, that's something that we don't intend to do on many occasion.

“I wanted to make sure that the team's back in the game, and the drivers will also be back in the game, their own game, from next week onwards.

"But for this weekend it was important to get back as close as possible to the team that's still fourth, which is McLaren."

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