After out-qualifying teammate Sergio Perez to be the only Force India in the top 10, Nico Hulkenberg had been hoping to put in an impressive performance to show he could optimise position just as Perez has done in past races.
He finished eighth, two places ahead of his teammate, but a one-place gain was a lot less than what Hulkenberg had been hoping for.
Hulkenberg was overtaken by Fernando Alonso off the start but managed to get back passed the Spaniard after a few laps. The German never looked to be challenging higher than eighth, and, whilst trying to make a one-stop strategy work, he focused a lot on tyre management.
The Force India driver had been targeting a top-six finish and had felt that it was an obtainable target:
“I’m happy to score points, but at the same time I was hoping for a bit more from the race… For some reason the car didn’t feel as good today as it did during practice and qualifying. Maybe it’s because the conditions were so cold and windy, which meant we lost the sweet spot and the car was not easy to drive.
“That’s something we need to look at in more detail and understand. At the start I didn’t get off the line very well, but I had a great first lap and recovered some positions. Then, the story of my race was simply tyre management. I think we made the right calls with the tyre strategy because even though we wanted to try and one stop it just wasn’t possible in the end.”
Force India showed they had the pace this weekend to be a competitive midfield team. They will be hoping that the warmer conditions of Baku will help them reach the optimum tyre temperatures quickly so they can use the whole pace potential of their car.
