A bitter pill to swallow for Nico Hülkenberg (Audi/17th): “An unnecessary mistake”

It’s a mixed bag for Audi: Gabriel Bortoleto squeezed into the top ten as the tenth-fastest driver, but for the experienced Nico Hülkenberg, qualifying was already over after the first segment.

Nico Hülkenberg could only manage P17 in the Audi; with a car that’s fast enough for the top ten, this time it’s down to the 39-year-old German, as the Emmerich native immediately admitted.

Hülki locked up the right front wheel on his final attempt in Q1, causing him to veer off the ideal line – there was nothing he could do to salvage the situation.

Nico said afterwards: “I was trying a bit too hard there; the wheel locked up under braking, and everything was lost in that one corner. It’s bitter, of course – an unnecessary mistake in Q1, and that’s down to me.”

“It’s very frustrating, because we would have got through easily, given how I was riding on the lap before, but that’s all ‘would-haves’, ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ now.”

Topic of the week

A stuttering start to the Bahrain Grand Prix: the FIA narrowly avoids a fiasco like the one in Indianapolis in 2005

Fans could hardly believe their eyes at what they witnessed at the Bahrain Grand Prix: cars crawling along, racing cars that simply came to a standstill. The FIA narrowly avoided a fiasco like the one at Indy in 2005.

Mathias Brunner

Read More

TV Program

Live

Austin: 1. Freies Training

FIA Formula One World Championship

23.10.2026 - 19:25

“In terms of the approach, it was okay, but I just needed a clean lap. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.”