Hulkenberg hails ‘massive result’ at Spa
Nico Hulkenberg hailed his fourth position as a ‘massive result’ at the Belgian Grand Prix.
Starting from seventh, the German spent a lot of the race in contention for his first Formula One podium, but an attacking Lewis Hamilton pipped him to the bottom step.
Hulkenberg was running second after the first corner, avoiding the incidents that filled the first few laps.
It was a good return to form that the German has shown in the past. He managed to beat his teammate Sergio Perez (who has stolen the limelight in Force India for most of the 2016 season) to the line for fourth, gifting Force India their best finish of the season and a decent haul of points that has taken them ahead of Williams in the Constructors’ Championship.
Despite missing out on his first Formula One podium, Hulkenberg was very happy with his performance and ecstatic to bring Force India back twelve points from today’s race.
“Today is a massive result for the team and I’m feeling very happy with fourth place.” Hulkenberg said after the race. “There were some unusual circumstances, but we were there to take the opportunities and pick up some very important points.
“At the start of the race things worked out really well for me. The first lap was great; I was up in second place following Nico [Rosberg] and pulling away from the group of cars behind me.
“Unfortunately, the red flag proved costly because it neutralised things and bunched everybody back up again. The restart was clean and the rest of the race was quite controlled – just managing my pace and looking after the tyres.”
Hulkenberg and Fernando Alonso had a close moment coming out of the pit lane. The Spaniard tried to perform the undercut on Hulkenberg but the pair pitted together.
In an attempt to get Alonso out ahead the McLaren team released him so he was side by side with the German at pit exit. The release was safe but the tightness of the Spa-Francorchamps pit lane meant they were running close together.
Light contact was made but it did no damage to either car. Hulkenberg managed to retain his position ahead of Alonso, claiming that – as no damage had been done and no detriment came to either of their races – it was all ‘just a bit of fun’.
Hulkenberg will be hoping to take this form forwards to Italy next weekend as Formula One heads to Monza for round 14 of the 2016 season