A total of eleven times Nico Hülkenberg did not get beyond Q1 in qualifying this year. Nevertheless, the German was again not satisfied with twelve in Monza.
The reason: again his teammate Gabriel Bortoleto, who put his clean in eighth place in the starting line -up at the Grand Prix of Italy in 2025. In the direct duel, the Brazilian is now leading 10: 6 – since Canada, the rookie has completely under control the veteran.
On the high-speed course by Monza, Hülkenberg repeatedly built small mistakes in his fast rounds that cost him time: especially the second Lesmo (curve seven) caused the somewhat overambitious 38-year problems-he always came to the gravel at the corner from the corner.
Binotto: “Overall a good qualifying”
“In the first attempt in Q2 I screwed up my round,” said Hülkenberg. “Of course that makes you vulnerable for the last attempt.” In the second round he wanted to “leave a little air so that he didn’t stand without anything.”
In the end, only five hundredths of a second were missing on the saving bank with Yuki Tsunoda in tenth – even on Bortoleto there were not even two tenths in Q2. “He took less risk to avoid mistakes, and in the end it is about hundredths,” sums up Mattia Binotto in an interview with Sky. He was tackled the crucial round “a little too conservative”.
The clean manager was still satisfied: “Nevertheless, it was a good qualifying for him, especially after a few weeks that were more difficult. There is no reason to blame him.”
Clean enough for points?
In fact, there is a slight upward trend compared to 17th place in Zandvoort. Hülkenberg is also optimistic about the race on Sunday: “The car is quick, we are competitive”, these are “the good news”.
Hülkenberg’s racing engineer Steven Petrik on Boxenfunk also predicted a good Sunday: “Don’t worry, Nico. We can still get a lot from this position tomorrow.” The Longrun-Pace from free training also shows that something can come out in the race.
The clean is on the road with manageable tire wear and was able to walk the pace behind the Williams halfway – so it is ahead of Haas, Racing Bulls, Alpine and Aston Martin. A realistic chance of points for Hülkenberg, which still leads 9: 6 against Bortoleto in the race duel.