At the qualifying session for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, Haas F1 driver Nico Hülkenberg landed an impressive 10th position, all whilst aiding in Max Verstappen’s pole-winning lap.
In Q1, Hülkenberg’s initial run was far from perfect, but as the session progressed, he moved from the back of the pack to the top, leading him to Q2, and ultimately, Q3.
Towards the end of Q3, Verstappen was leading, but the McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were close behind.
Whilst Hülkenberg was on his final flying lap, he helped Verstappen receive a slipstream behind him down the main straight. This reduced Verstappen’s drag and helped him finish the session in P1, with a lap time of 1:14.746.
Speaking about their combined tactics, Hulkenberg joked on Sky Sports: “Max and I, we’ve been helping (each other) out this quali.
“He helped me a few times in Q2, and I returned the favour here.
“You need the support of colleagues sometimes, don’t you?”
His ability to recover from a shaky start in Q1 when he was outpaced by Magnussen on the first and second runs, and his strategic moves with Verstappen in Q3, highlighted that Hülkenberg is one of F1’s elite qualifiers at present.
Speaking in the written media pen following the session, the German claimed that he was pleased with his overall performance, but there were moments in Q3 where he felt he could have done better.
“Good, just in Q3, not entirely happy. Not 100%, only 97.
“Just that last lap. I don’t know, it’s just, it’s a funny old circuit and the dynamic.
“It’s a fascinating circuit, very on the edge, very old school.
“I noticed that Q1, the first run, wasn’t clean and good at all. But I kind of knew that, you know, that I had quite a bit of lap time in hand if I cleaned up my lap.
“Our own expectation was somewhere P13-14 before quali, so… Yeah, came a bit out of the blue. Yeah, it’s definitely positive.”
He described the challenges of the Imola circuit, noting that the smallest errors can be difficult to recover from.
“If you start the lap well and you gain 1-2 tenths, then lap turn 1-2, and then it just kind of… There’s a positive dynamic, but if you’re a bit down… you’re always going to be down and it’s hard to kind of get the time back.
“I lost 1 and a half tenths coming out of turn 3, and I’m not sure how or why. I need to, yeah, look into how that happened.”
Hülkenberg also acknowledged the unpredictable wind conditions, but remains optimistic about Sunday’s race, confident in Haas’s ability to compete with the second group of cars, such as RB F1, Alpine and now Aston Martin.
“The wind here also, it’s, you know, very, like, unpredictable, inconsistent. So, it’s been a challenging two days.
“It’s Saturday, so let’s see how tomorrow goes. But I think today, even what I felt or saw yesterday, we’re not falling behind at the moment.
“I think we can keep up with the second five teams, you know, with that group. I think we can keep up by the looks of it.
“It’s very fine margins. We’re all, you know, within a tenth or so. It’s incredibly tight, so… Yeah, you have to really get it right every time.”
