Prost: Renault can't do better than Monza

Alain Prost says Renault's fourth and fifth-place finish at the Italian Grand Prix was the maximum that the team could expect to achieve.

Daniel Ricciardo led Nico Hulkenberg home to secure Renault's best points haul from a single race since 2008, converting top-six starting positions.

As a result, Renault are back within 18 points of McLaren in the race for fourth place in the constructors' championship, although this remains short of the target the French team had set at the start of 2019 to close the gap to the big three teams.

Although Renault's season has not hit the heights expected, special advisor Prost says the Monza haul will ease the pressure that had built up at Enstone.

"We had a few races where we missed big points, big opportunities," Prost told Autosport.

"There was Monaco, and Spa also, because the pace was good but we lost everything at the start. When you have these kinds of races and problems you get some more pressure.

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P4! Pizza time!! 🍕 . With @danielricciardo in 4th and @hulkhulkenberg just behind, @renaultf1team get their first double top 5 finish since 2008 . #F1 #Formula1 #ItalianGP #Ricciardo #Hulkenberg #Renault

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"Obviously it's not easy, so we had to get some good points, and fourth and fifth is fantastic. We can't do better, anyway.

"It's very good team. There's a lot of work, a lot of pressure, and they deserved this result.

"The pressure is also because we have to be honest, the power was not at the level that we thought we could be this year. We knew that we could not catch the top three anyway.

"You have an objective and if you're not close to the objective, you put on yourself more pressure, which is not very good, because at the end of the day we are still trying to build the team."

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