Penalty for Nico Hülkenberg/Audi, yet still P10: “That made me particularly happy”

Audi can still finish seventh in the World Championship: thanks to Nico Hülkenberg’s tenth-place finish at the São Paulo Grand Prix, the brand with the four rings has closed the gap on Haas to just three points.

For a while, it looked as though the impressive Hülkenberg might achieve even more: He was in P8 for a long time, and at one point Hülki was even seventh, but then the race stewards dealt him a heavy blow – they ruled that Nico’s car had been off the track when he overtook Franco Colapinto.

Hülkenberg, who started from P4 following a turbulent qualifying session, said after the Brazilian World Championship round: “The race was good, but unfortunately, in the end, it only amounted to one point.”

“When you manage to get away up front, you naturally hope for more. But the top cars came up from behind and had significantly more pace than us.”

“In the first part of the race on the intermediate tyres, I didn’t have enough speed, and in the second part, now on the slicks, I wasn’t fast enough either. That’s why it was difficult to pick up any more points on the day.”

“But it was good to at least pick up that one point after the penalty. Was the penalty justified? I’ll have to take a closer look at the footage again in peace and quiet. But that doesn’t matter now. We made up for the ten seconds as best we could.”

“As is usually the case with races at Interlagos, the conditions were treacherous. There were quite a few pitfalls to fall into, but also opportunities. It was very easy to make a mistake. But all in all, the Grand Prix was fun, and we managed to steer clear of the biggest trouble.”

“Right at the very end, I managed to overtake Lindblad and secure P10 with a brilliant manoeuvre. That was particularly satisfying after the penalty. To bounce back after such a setback and still manage to score points is a nice reward. Looking at our pace, there wasn’t really much more we could have achieved that day.”