Nico Hülkenberg had one foot in the points after the Monaco Grand Prix. However, a penalty immediately took away Audi’s premiere points again.
After his 14th place at the Monaco spectacle, Nico Hülkenberg was dominated by “frustration and disappointment,” as he made clear in an interview with “Sky”: “I would have, would have had a bicycle chain.”
The German crossed the finish line in his Audi in ninth place, meaning he could have scored the first points for his racing team in the sixth race of the season. But: Hülkenberg was given a ten-second penalty by the rules, which knocked him out of the top 10. “A bitter race,” summed up the man from Emmerich.
First of all, Sergio Perez was happy with tenth place and thus the first point for the new Cadillac racing team. The Mexican was subsequently given a penalty. Fernando Alonso slipped to tenth place.
Video: Spectacle in Monaco: That was the scene of the day
Hülkenberg collision with Sainz
On fresh soft tires, Hülkenberg was unable to avoid contact with Williams driver Carlos Sainz in heavy traffic after the restart. The Spaniard had to park his car. A little later, Nico Hülkenberg drove straight ahead at the chicane and passed Alex Albon, but he gave up this position two laps later.
“We have a good package, you saw that in the race,” the 38-year-old explained to “Sky”: “We saw in qualifying yesterday that we had suffered a little damage. That damaged the aerodynamics, which is why we lacked performance in Q2.” In the end he had to start from 13th place in a sometimes chaotic race: “It was very unfortunate that something like that happened at that point in time. That set the course for today.”
In Monaco, overtaking maneuvers are traditionally difficult or even impossible. Several safety car phases and a long break in the race created additional tension in the Principality.