Nico Hülkenberg almost succeeds in Miami’s sprint qualifying: The clean pilot already seemed on course for moving into the third part of the qualification before Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) pushed him out of the top 10 at the last second. Nevertheless, the Formula 1 routine is “quite satisfied” with eleventh place.
And for good reason. Because in the only free training session, the German practically couldn’t drive. “I got a flat spot with the first tire set and therefore had hardly any travel time,” reports Hülkenberg. “I think I only drove four rounds, which of course is not an ideal preparation for the sprint qualification.”
His performance is all the more remarkable. “I am satisfied, I think we have largely exhausted our potential,” emphasizes the 37-year-old, whose training data hardly allowed any conclusions about the correct coordination. “Overall, a decent and definitely positive appearance.”
Hülkenberg sees the fact that he almost came into Q3 despite these conditions. But also not anymore. “It feels good, but we have to wait and see how things are going in the race,” he says reluctantly. “We know that we had a few difficulties recently, but maybe it’s a little different here.”
So far, starting place was twelve in Shanghai Hülkenberg’s best qualifying result of the season. The race was not optimal there too, because in the end there were only 15th place. Accordingly, the clean driver remains realistic in Miami: “You have to compete every day and see what is possible. That’s exactly what we do.”
Team colleague Bortoleto starts from P19
Team colleague Gabriel Bortoleto will also try everything to improve his result in Miami on Saturday. The Brazilian left the first section of the Sprint qualification and has to record the sprint from the 19th and thus the penultimate starting place.
“The round was good and would definitely have been enough for Q2,” believes Bortoleto. But then he made a crucial mistake. “The bikes blocked and I drove straight ahead. The round was basically lost. I may have improved slightly, but really only minimal.”
Ultimately, time was simply too slow. “It’s a shame because more would have been possible today,” believes the 20-year-old. “The round was neat and I had a good feeling in the car. So a shame, but we’ll go on.” However, Bortoleto has not yet completely written off Saturday.
“There are still a few things we can work on,” he says confidently with a view to the main race. And also in the sprint there is still movement in the field: “It looks as if they have extended the DRS zone a little, so there may be overtaking opportunities.”
Whether opportunities can actually be found must be shown on the route. “Let’s see if overtaking is really possible here,” says the rookie, who can at least hope for a few places in the 19-round sprint, even if points remain out of reach. “But yes, we’ll see.”