Ricciardo ended Friday at Barcelona 15th-fastest, one place behind teammate Nico Hulkenberg, after being 11th in the opening session. Renault’s upgrades include a new ‘coathanger’-style T-wing and a small monkey-seat device attached to the rear wing, which Ricciardo said improved the car in FP1 before the team reached a “stalemate” in second practice. “The one-lap performance today was not good enough,” he said. “I think the long runs were more competitive, and I think they looked relatively quite a lot better than the short runs. “But the first run this morning actually I felt pretty good with the car and I felt like the updates worked quite well. Then we hit a little bit of a stalemate, I guess, and we didn't really progress that much through the day. “We need to go back and see what we changed from the first run and take a few steps back and figure it out. “I definitely felt some positives today, even though the end result doesn't look like that. The car is certainly better in areas, we just have to make sure we put it together on one lap.” Though the midfield group was ultra-tight, with Ricciardo just 0.2s away from ninth place, Renault’s main best-of-the-rest rival Haas was a clear fourth-fastest. While Ricciardo does not believe Renault can match Haas, he is adamant the team is “better” than 15th. “I feel it's there,” he said when asked by Motorsport.com if there was time in the car. “The Haas were definitely quick over one lap, so I don't want to say we've got an easy seven tenths in the pocket. “But there’s certainly a handful there if we get it right. And I do think we can get it right, because I definitely did feel it more in FP1 this morning that the car was handling pretty well. “From my reference here in winter testing it did improve quite a lot. We’ve just got to make sure we get it right when it counts in Q3.” Hulkenberg admitted it was “not the best of Fridays”, after outpacing Ricciardo by less than a tenth. He felt the team’s upgrades worked well but the team’s one-lap pace was exposed in an “incredibly tight” midfield. “As a driver you get an initial feeling and it didn’t feel bad, generally positive,” he said. “It’s always difficult to compare to winter testing because the temperatures are very different and that changes the car characteristic a lot. “But it was OK. Like always, it’s never enough, never happy or good enough. The one-lap pace today didn’t look fantastic. I think we have room for improvement there. “The long runs looked more promising but it’s very close between all the midfield teams.”<doc-sep>Renault: Not in line with the targets we have set ourselves Renault F1 Team fell short of scoring points in the Emirates Spanish Grand Prix with Daniel Ricciardo twelfth and Nico Hülkenberg narrowly behind in thirteenth at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Sunday. Daniel gained one position by the end of lap one before maintaining position in the early running. The Australian couldn’t make further inroads from there until a late Safety Car closed the field up with Daniel pushing for the final points place, which came to no avail. Having qualified sixteenth, Nico started the race from the Pit Lane due to a post-qualifying penalty and made the most of the opportunity by adding new engine parts to his car. A strong start allowed him good position in the midfield battle, but he too missed out on points after the late Safety Car. Nico started from the Pit Lane on Pirelli’s new Medium (yellow) tyres, pitting on lap 35 for new Softs (red). Daniel started from P13 on used Soft tyres, pitting on lap 24 for new Hard (white) tyres and later on lap 45 for new Mediums. Nico Hülkenberg Started from Pit Lane, finished P13: “It was always going to be tricky today starting from the Pit Lane. It wasn’t a great race as we didn’t score any points, but it was nice to have a normal race and grow the confidence back up. Especially after a tough weekend, that’s a positive.” “I couldn’t quite fight for points in the end, we had 10-lap old Softs running against others who had pitted for fresh tyres after the Safety Car. I felt good and comfortable out there, which is promising heading into Monaco. I’m back in the R.S.19 on Tuesday, so we’ll be aiming for a productive day’s running.” Daniel Ricciardo Started P13, finished P12: “It was a frustrating race from my side this afternoon. In the first part, we had the pace on Sainz and at the end of that first stint I was able to take him. We then pitted and put the Hard tyres on and he got me back quite quickly. It was difficult to close the gap back, we had good pace in the final sector but couldn’t get the run on him out of the final corner.” “We were certainly quicker than twelfth today and, in the end, it wasn’t a perfect Sunday. The midfield is so close and everything has to be executed to the maximum for a strong result. We’ll regroup and look forward to the next one.” Cyril Abiteboul, Team Principal: “Barcelona is always a good race weekend to assess the competitiveness of the car and the team after the first couple of fly away races that are not always representative. The midfield is very close and any deviation leads to spectacular variations.” “But the result today is clear, even without the Safety Car, a few points could have been possible. We are not in line with the targets we have set ourselves.” “The test next week comes at a good moment to assess particular areas of the car in depth and look at important development items as we define our short-term and medium-term action plan to recover from a poor season start that does not alter our determination and our long-term objectives.”<doc-sep>Both Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Hulkenberg have voiced frustrations with an inconsistent performance and feeling from their Renault F1 car. In a difficult qualifying at the Spanish Grand Prix, Hulkenberg suffered an early exit in Q1 after running off track at Turn 4 and damaging his car leaving him stranded in 16th place. Ricciardo fared better making it into Q3 but a mistake on his key final run restrained him to 10th place and coupled with his three-place grid penalty carried over from his crash with Daniil Kvyat in Azerbaijan it means he’ll line up 13th for the Spanish race. Despite going into the weekend optimistic with upgrades and a new internal combustion unit for improved reliability, both drivers raised concerns about an inconsistent F1 car which behaved differently with the same setup in different sessions. “Sometimes the car is pretty good, and then next session it might be not like it was,” Ricciardo said. “So it is still a little bit hard to read and lacks some consistency. “Yesterday morning I felt like the car was good. I was like, sweet. We didn’t change too much, but it felt like we just fell off the pace. Then in qualifying we were able to get it back. And get closer to where we needed to be. “But we know some reasons why with setup but it is not always that clear. So it is probably still a bit off. Sometimes a bit of a nightmare to get it in that window.” “The balance is not that consistent and it changes around often, even during a session with conditions changing,” Hulkenberg added. “It is tough to stay on top of the balance and it seems the operating window seems quite narrow and sharp so it makes it tough to get the rhythm sometimes and the consistency.” Ricciardo elaborated saying he’s not spotted a trend of the inconsistencies, with the balance feeling changing in all types of corners, which is causing Renault headaches along with its current braking problem. “I wouldn’t say a massive pattern for now,” he explained. “In the morning the car felt good in the low speed corners, but not good in the high speed, and this afternoon it was a bit better in the high speed but not as good in the low speed. So I wouldn’t say there is a real characteristic yet. “The high speed I’m sure that the top three teams, they have a bit more downforce, so their high speed is quicker. For sure it can be a place we can improve, but probably no more than braking and entry for low speed. So it is a bit of a mix for now.”<doc-sep>
Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo says he is on the hunt for points in Monday morning’s (AEST) Spanish Grand Prix, despite taking a three-place grid penalty that will see him start from 13th. Ricciardo’s time of 1:8.106s at the Circuit de Catalunya was 10th-fastest after a mixed session in his Renault where he was almost eliminated earlier. “We did a pretty good job to get into Q3 today. That was the target and I certainly felt after yesterday we had the potential to achieve that,” Ricciardo said in a team statement. “We probably could have been slightly higher in the order for Q3, but I lost the rear out of Turn 13 on the second run and lost some time. “That stopped it from being a really good session, but, in any case, it was a strong effort today. We have the penalty to add, but we’ll get our heads down in the race and look for points.” Mercedes Valtteri Bottas will start from pole position having clocked a blistering time of 1:15.406 seconds that could not be beaten by any later challengers. “I really enjoyed that. I feel better and better in the car and I am looking forward to tomorrow,” Bottas said, having again taken the title challenge up to his teammate Lewis Hamilton. His time was 0.634s quicker than Hamilton’s, with Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel in third with1:16.272. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen will start fourth, with Charles Leclerc fifth in the other Ferrari. Despite starting in second place Hamilton said the upgrades brought by Mercedes to the start of the traditional European part of the campaign were working well. The Briton, winner for the past two seasons in Barcelona and three times in all, said Bottas had simply been quicker on the day. “Valtteri did a fantastic job, he’s been quick all weekend,” said Hamilton. “On my side, I just didn’t put the lap together … ultimately it just wasn’t a good enough job. “It’s great for the team to have this one-two so we’ll try and convert that into a one-two (on Sunday) and if I can reverse it I’ll be happy.” Mercedes have won the first four races one-two, a record start for any team, despite Ferrari setting the pace in pre-season testing. “I think we got everything out of the car in the first run,” said Vettel. “In the second run I had to try something different and it didn’t work. “The car doesn’t feel bad but obviously we are not quick enough. In terms of balance we got it more or less right,” added the German, who said Ferrari were still down on grip through the slower corners. -with AAP