Nico Hulkenberg and Audi dug deep to rescue a vital point in the Sao Paulo Grand Prix last weekend, with the German driver insisting that finishing tenth and taking the final point on offer was simply "the maximum possible" after a chaotic afternoon.
Things had looked remarkably bright when Hulkenberg lined up fourth on the grid for the 71-lap race in Brazil. He had starred during a wet Qualifying session before being promoted two spots by grid penalties for George Russell and Charles Leclerc. But as the damp track dried out at the start of the grand prix, the Audi racer slipped down the order and found himself scrapping with the Alpine of Franco Colapinto on the edges of the points.
When I was able to be in free air and put some pace out there [it] was very positive,
Drama struck when Hulkenberg moved ahead of his rival at Turn 1 by cutting the track, drawing a 10-second penalty that he finally served during a late pit stop as fresh rain forced a switch to intermediate tyres. Dropped down to P11, the German had to charge. He hunted down the Racing Bulls machine of Arvid Lindblad, finally making a clean pass just seven laps from the end.
"It was a good move [on Lindblad], set him up a little bit on the entry for the exit with an undercut. It felt nice, felt good, especially after the penalty, obviously to fight back for that position," Hulkenberg said.
Reflecting on the grand prix as a whole, he added: "I think that was the maximum possible really today. We didn't have that much pace to offer on the slick or the intermediates, so we'll have to take that and review."
That hard-fought point marks only the fifth time Hulkenberg has broken into the points during a grand prix this season, helping Audi trim the gap to Haas for P7 in the teams' standings down to just three points. On the other side of the garage, team mate Gabriel Bortoleto endured a difficult home hero's weekend, finishing P16 after crashing out early in Qualifying and starting P19 on the grid.
"When I was able to be in free air and put some pace out there [it] was very positive," Bortoleto explained of his recovery drive. "But obviously it's a consequence of yesterday, starting from the back you need to overtake people. Was not easy to overtake because obviously we are limited by the power that we have when it's raining, so we're limited to 250Kw. Difficult to get some top speed difference on the straight and I got a bit stuck behind other cars... It's a shame, I think home race was not how I expected. The love from the fans was there and I really appreciate it, so we go to the next one."
F1
F1
