Force India salutes the fantastic performance of Hülkenberg
Freshly crowned with a victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Nico Hülkenberg clinched an unexpected 5th place in today's qualifying. Sergio Perez, caught in traffic in Q1, will start far behind his teammate.
On a circuit where engine power is predominant, Nico Hülkenberg extracted the quintessence of his Mercedes engine to secure a remarkable 5th place on the grid. He was understandably delighted after his performance: « I feel very happy after what happened today. We knew that we had a good chance of being in the top 10, so starting from fifth place is an excellent effort by the team. »
Nevertheless, the pace of his Force India – which is still awaiting its B version – might complicate things for him during the race: « Tomorrow will be a difficult race because there are a few faster cars behind us. But we have already laid the necessary groundwork to carry out a solid race. This circuit can sometimes hold unexpected surprises, and we still don’t know what the weather will be like tomorrow, but if we do our best, I’m sure we can score some good points. »
On the other hand, Sergio Perez, trapped by traffic and changing track conditions, didn’t make it out of Q1, finishing in 16th place (13th on the grid tomorrow after various penalties were applied): « It’s very disappointing to be eliminated in Q1, especially because we had the potential to achieve a very good result. Driving on a drying track was a real challenge and it wasn’t easy to find a good spot to launch into the required pace. (…) I found myself behind Fernando [Alonso] and spent the entire lap behind him. And I had Kimi [Räikkönen] behind me, so I couldn’t slow down to give myself some space. »
Robert Fernley, the deputy team principal, is finally quite confident about Force India’s capabilities in long stints: « Nico’s fifth place on the grid is a tremendous achievement and a fully deserved result for the team. The car is performing beautifully here and Nico had an excellent stint this afternoon with several fantastic laps. (…) Our pace on the long stints seemed competitive yesterday and we also need to keep an eye on the sky with the possibility of more rain tomorrow ».
