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Renault has issued an apology to Red Bull and its driver Max Verstappen after the teenager was forced to retire from yet another Grand Prix due to an engine problem. Verstappen now adds Belgium to his list of 2017 retirements, with Canada and Azerbaijan also coming from engine issues.
Verstappen out-qualified teammate Daniel Ricciardo on Saturday by a massive five-tenths of a second and was running in fifth place when his failure occurred. After the race, Renault's managing director Cyril Abiteboul apologised to the 19-year-old.
"I want to mention Red Bull Racing. Their race was one of contrasts, on one side Daniel Ricciardo showed solid pace for another podium but on the other side Max Verstappen was forced to retire. An electronic systems issue seems to be at the heart of this problem.
"I personally apologise to Red Bull Racing and more specifically to Max and his many fans who are as disappointed as we are. We will work closely with Red Bull to define a course of action and a roadmap to eradicate issues such as this one which meant they couldn’t harness their package’s potential today."
Speaking about Renault's own race, Abiteboul was happy to see the team back scoring points, as Nico Hulkenberg drove the car to a sixth place finish. Jolyon Palmer failed to score but Aboteboul says that the result was not a true reflection of the Briton's pace.
"Overall the team had a good race, making a return to the points, where it belongs, as fourth strongest in both qualifying and on race day. Nico equalled his season-best with sixth and despite a difficult first lap, he was able to come back strong with a very solid race strategy that was perfectly executed.
"Jolyon’s results were disappointing for him and for the team. The five-place grid penalty and the results today do not reflect his strong start to the weekend. We will investigate further to see what happened with the difference in pace from Saturday to Sunday."
Fergal Walsh
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