Kevin Magnussen admits the midfield cars starting on the Hypersoft tyre are concerned a repeat of Singapore could take place at the Russian Grand Prix.
Two weeks ago only one driver that started in positions 7-10 remained in the points by the end as early pit-stops dropped them behind Sergey Sirotkin, a driver they were then unable to get past.
A similar situation is expected in Sochi with the pink-striped compound again much less durable than either the Ultrasoft or Soft on a circuit where overtaking is also just as difficult.
“Most people are a bit nervous about that, hopefully, it will be the same for everyone,” Magnussen said after qualifying ‘best of the rest’ in fifth.
“It is a great day for the team, both cars in the top 10 so a good chance of scoring points tomorrow.
“We need to have a bit better pace tomorrow if we want to be competitive, the track is usually better in the race so the tyres are easier to make last.”
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Renault, on the other hand, are pinning their hopes on a repeat of Marina Bay, having caused a stir by not running in Q2 and settling for P11 and P12 with free choice on tyres.
“It’s not what you want to do heading into qualy but sometimes you have to play the game,” Nico Hulkenberg said, after calling his session “boring”.
“To come out better tomorrow we had to do what we had to do.”
His boss Cyril Abiteboul also defended his team’s decision suggesting the fact it was even an option showed flaws in the format.
“It’s a bit strange, a bit awkward to decide voluntarily not to try your best,” he told Autosport. “It does say something about the whole situation between penalties and tyres and degradation and starting tyres being your Q2 tyres and so forth.
“If anything it sends a small message to all the people setting the rules. We’ve been talking about trying to secure 11th and 12th for quite a long time this seaon, because it’s clearly an advantage.
“For the first time it was very clear it was possible on the back of penalties.”