Renault double points finish "a good day"

The French outfit scored valuable points with both cars after drama out front.

Nico Hulkenberg's sixth and Carlos Sainz' ninth-place finishes at the Chinese Grand Prix capped off a strong weekend for the team as they continue to fight with McLaren for fourth in the constructor standings.

Hulkenberg, who started from seventh for the sixth race running, was delighted with the points haul and strong race he put in.

"Everyone seemed to have low grip at the start, with cars sliding all over the place," he said. "We were on a two-stop strategy from the beginning. We had to make the tyre last, while maintaining strong pace."

Teammate Sainz came close to relieving Vettel of eight place on the final lap but said he needed one more tour of the Shanghai circuit to get the job done.

"On my last stint, traffic behind Alonso and Magnussen degraded my tyres too much," he added. "I had to save them in order to have a better opportunity at the end of the race."

Team Principal Cyril Abiteboul summarised the weekend as a show of maturity and development from the team.