Nico Hulkenberg continued his top-ten qualifying trend, placing his Renault RS17 eighth on tomorrow's Russian Grand Prix grid.
The German enjoyed pretty much a trouble-free run through the afternoon's successive quali segments, pushing the Renault as far up the ranks as he could.
“I think that was the best we could do with the package we have currently, so it’s been a satisfying afternoon from that point of view," Hulkenberg said.
The German qualified seventh in China and Bahrain but only brought home two points from those races because of the RS17's inherent race pace deficit.
Renault addressed the weakness with aero updates brought to Russia, but Hulkenberg still reported balance issues on his long run on Friday.
"The challenge will be in the race; our pace then has been trickier so far this season so tomorrow will be the true teller of where we are in the car with our recent upgrade.
"We’ll push, as always, and hopefully come away with some nice points."
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