Hulkenberg: ‘If you make mistakes, you pay’
Renault believe a software glitch caused Nico Hulkenberg's MGU-K to shut down in China.
Nico Hulkenberg believes he could have made it into Q2 at the least if not for his crash early in the first session at the Circuit de Catalunya.
The German crashed into the barriers in Q1, destroying his new spec front wing in the process.
The team had time to fit the older model and get him out but his pace was compromised nonetheless.
Without such issues, his teammate Ricciardo got through to Q2, and Hulkenberg feels he would have too.
“I could have definitely got it into Q2,” Hulkenberg said.
“It’s obviously not great going off in the first run there, and I lost the new spec front wing as well so the second run we had to revert back.”
👀 Another shot of Hulk's trapped front wing#SpanishGP 🇪🇸 #F1 pic.twitter.com/tBxmkOEowB
— Formula 1 (@F1) May 11, 2019
His one timed lap of the session following the crash was only quick enough to get him P16, and he says the wing change is to blame.
“Then the car felt quite different and I felt quite a loss of downforce so definitely that cost quite a bit of performance”, he added.
“I think otherwise we would have made it to Q2 but there you go, if you make mistakes you pay for it.”
Himself and Renault will however take hope from the fact that the car had the pace to get into Q3, and they will be optimistic of fighting their way to some points on race day.
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