Hülkenberg’s comment on Liam Lawson: “That’s his trademark”

Nico Hülkenberg finished the Italian Grand Prix at Monza in 12th place. His team-mate Gabriel Bortoleto came 11th, missing out on the points by the narrowest of margins. Audi has therefore reserved the right to lodge a potential appeal, hoping for a retrospective time penalty for Yuki Tsunoda (10th) and consequently a move up to 10th and 11th place. However, regardless of how any potential protest pans out, Hülkenberg finishes outside the points.

During the VSC phase following Lance Stroll’s retirement, Hülkenberg therefore pitted for a tyre change, like many other drivers, even though he would probably have managed without fresh tyres. Hülkenberg: “We knew it would be difficult, but at that point I was outside the points, and we said to ourselves: if that’s the case, we obviously have to try and do something a bit differently to make up for it.” So he took a gamble – but still ended up without any points.

Hülkenberg fell back

Hülkenberg on the situation at the restart following the interruption caused by Leclerc’s crash: “It’s a shame; the start was quite good. Not so much the start itself, but on the first lap I made up two or three places and was in a really good position. But then on laps two and three I thought to myself: I don’t know what happened, whether there was a problem, but I simply fell back on the straight and was overtaken again by two or three cars. From then on, it went downhill.”

On the straight, which demands a lot of engine power, Audi struggled with its own set-up. However, even amongst high-speed circuits, Monza is an extreme case, so things should improve in the remaining races. Hülkenberg: “We’re still relatively competitive. We just didn’t have the cleanest starts. That’s what makes it difficult.”

Lawson ‘always likes to push the others aside’

Hülkenberg had a dicey moment with Liam Lawson (currently standing in for Hajdar at Red Bull Racing) on lap 18, when the New Zealander forced him onto the grass through turns 4 and 5. Hülkenberg later commented: “He just likes to push. He always likes to push others off the track when you’re driving alongside him. He never really wants to leave a car’s width of space; that’s his trademark. I don’t hold it against him, but it’s just a bit tricky.”

Topic of the week

2027 MotoGP grid: Almost a quarter of the riders are new – implications for SBK

The 2027 MotoGP grid will feature five new regular riders, with at least three of those dropped set to move to the World Superbike Championship. The ones to suffer as a result are Alvaro Bautista and Danilo Petrucci.

Ivo Schützbach

Read more

TV program

Live

Madrid: Das Rennen Re-Live

FIA Formula One World Championship

13.09.2026 - 17:15

In the end, there was no investigation. At the time of his media session, Hülkenberg hadn’t yet seen any footage from the track cameras or other angles. He therefore said: “I need to have a look at it from the outside, but in the briefings we said that you should take this seriously, especially at these speeds. It felt a bit precarious in the car at that moment.”