Nico Hulkenberg admits there was nothing more to come out his Force India after delivering the maximum potential of the car in qualifying.
His first Q3 time was good enough for fifth place on the grid, behind both Mercedes and Red Bull’s but ahead of the two Ferrari’s.
It’s the German’s best qualifying since the Austrian Grand Prix in July, where he qualified third on the grid before being promoted to the front row.
“My car just got better and better through qualifying,” he reported after the session.
“The track evolution helped, and perhaps we did a good job as well in understanding the tyres, and getting them into the sweet spot.
“My first lap was mega, there was nothing more I could squeeze out of it,” the soon-to-be Renault driver added. “All in all, it was a great qualifying session for us today.”
Having suffered three opening lap retirements this season, however, Hulkenberg is wary of a similar predicament occurring on the long run to the first chicane here in Mexico.
“You always have to be careful, but every start has a different dynamic,” he said.
“Last weekend wasn’t great, but I think it should be fine tomorrow.”
Teammate Sergio Perez, on the other hand, suffered a disappointing session in front of his home crowd, the Mexican surprisingly getting knocked out in Q2.
“It’s a shame to miss out on Q3 today, but I’m optimistic we can recover some positions in the race with a strong strategy,” said Perez.
“In Q2 we went out on the soft tyres to see if we could progress to Q3, but for my second run, we switched to the supersoft tyres.
“Unfortunately I made a small mistake on my final lap, which ended my chance of qualifying inside the top 10.”
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