{"id":151033,"date":"2025-06-02T02:54:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-02T02:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/151033\/"},"modified":"2025-06-02T02:54:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-02T02:54:09","slug":"nico-hulkenbergs-secret-weapon-in-spanish-p5-finish-poor-qualifying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/151033\/","title":{"rendered":"Nico Hulkenberg’s secret weapon in Spanish P5 finish? Poor qualifying"},"content":{"rendered":"

No driver wants to start their Grand Prix weekend with a poor qualifying session, but for Sauber\u2019s Nico Hulkenberg, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Paired with Sauber\u2019s latest updates at the Spanish Grand Prix<\/a>, Hulkenberg was able to bring home his first fifth-place finish since 2019.<\/p>\n

Upgrades, qualifying helped Nico Hulkenberg in Spain<\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher<\/p>\n

When Nico Hulkenberg<\/a> was knocked out of qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix in the very first round, the Sauber driver admitted that \u201cI was pretty upset\u201d \u2014 as anyone would be with a P16 start for a race (15th once Lance Stroll withdrew).<\/p>\n

Adding insult to injury was the fact that Sauber was one of several teams to bring a slew of upgrades to Barcelona, including tweaks to the floor, the engine cover, and the front wing. Those changes, it seemed, had done little to overcome the performance deficit the team has been facing.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise.<\/p>\n

Come the start of the Grand Prix on Sunday afternoon, Hulkenberg was on fire and, despite a run off the track, found himself in 10th by the end of Lap 1 \u2014 with plenty of fresh tyres to spare.<\/p>\n

F1 2025: The season\u2019s winners and losers<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49\u00a0The results of the F1 2025 championship<\/a><\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49\u00a0The updated Drivers\u2019 and Constructors\u2019 Championship standings<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201c[It] was a great race, just one of them races where just everything seemed to click and to work out beautiful when it happens,\u201d Hulkenberg told media, including PlanetF1.com, after the race.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoesn\u2019t happen that often, unfortunately, but today it did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Naturally, that strong start put Hulkenberg in the fight right from the get-go.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a car coming sliding across,\u201d the Sauber driver explained of the race start.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I think Gabby [Gabriel Bortoleto] and I had to avoid Turn 2 and avoid some car. I\u2019m not sure who it was.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd had a bit of a little fight with Fernando also, I think, for one, two laps, but wrestled him down in the end. It was good start.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adding to the joy was that Hulkenberg had not only assumed the position of a much higher-qualified car after the first lap, but that he had an ace up his sleeve.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving all these new tyres, being out in Q1, actually was really useful and helpful today,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then, on the other hand, from 16th, to have the start and lap one that I had, you know, kind of immediately reset the race and then put us into the fight for a good result.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously the late Safety Car, and then having another set of softs did the rest of it so very happy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe take that, but, that\u2019s just, if you bring updates and performance that that works, you can help yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking of the updates, Hulkenberg was complimentary about what the team had done.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe it\u2019s the technical TD, the flexi-wing stuff, that others paid more of a price than us because honestly, I feel for us, it didn\u2019t change that much,\u201d he mused.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t feel much different in high speed, and to be honest, high speed so far has been not our strongest point, so I tend to believe it is the update.\u201d<\/p>\n

It all combined to send Nico Hulkenberg off to a fifth-place finish \u2014 which happens to be his best finish since the 2019 Italian Grand Prix, where he matched that fifth-place result.<\/p>\n

But for him, it\u2019s still far too early to consider how a strong finish in Spain can impact the rest of the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust let us take this one, digest it, be happy,\u201d he said when asked about his prospects for the Canadian Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s obviously a very sweet moment. The second time in points this year, but since Melbourne has obviously been a bit of a dry patch. It\u2019s been difficult.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe it puts us more on the map in the midfield fight. We\u2019ve found the connection to that train.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn quali, things are very tight and everything needs to be right. But I feel like in the races, hopefully we can be there and push into it and fight with all these other guys more.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued, \u201cP5 is, you know \u2014 we can only dream of the normal races and circumstances.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think obviously it was a P8 or P9 before the Safety Car, which already would have been really, really good for us.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone in the factory can be happy that the update delivered.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s what we needed, but we can\u2019t stop here, because nobody stops. We need more of the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Hulkenberg finishing fifth and Gabriel Bortoleto 12th, it was a strong weekend for the Sauber crew in Spain.<\/p>\n

Read next:\u00a0Spanish GP: Oscar Piastri leads McLaren one-two amid late Verstappen meltdown<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No driver wants to start their Grand Prix weekend with a poor qualifying session, but for Sauber\u2019s Nico…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151034,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[4199,707,4200,225,64456,12,12646,27196,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-151033","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-f1","9":"tag-formula-1","10":"tag-formula1","11":"tag-home-page","12":"tag-kick-sauber","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-nico-hulkenberg","15":"tag-spanish-grand-prix","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114611517231284696","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}