Saturday: Sauber pins its hopes on Hülkenberg
Nico Hülkenberg is the insurance policy for the Sauber F1 team and the German driver proved it once again today in India by qualifying in 7th position. Esteban Gutiérrez is far from his teammate this weekend, as he will start from the 16th position and will try to make up ground during the race.
Nico Hülkenberg – 4th and 7th:
« Overall, it was a good qualifying. 7th place is a good position for tomorrow, and I expect a tight battle with the McLarens. They chose a different approach by qualifying on the hardest compound, we qualified on softs, so it will be interesting to see who finishes ahead. In the race, we will have to see how we manage the softs, as they didn’t seem so good in free practice yesterday. Since then, we’ve improved the car, so they should be able to last longer. The long stints on mediums looked good. »
Esteban Gutiérrez – 19th and 16th:
« Today, I think we had a good rhythm and we managed to solve the problems encountered yesterday. However, I struggled to feel comfortable on this circuit. It’s very slippery. Overall, it has been a complicated weekend, but we had a good Q2. The car behaved really well and we were in good shape for Q2. Then, I took off on a curb and the landing was quite harsh, it distracted me a bit. My neck started hurting and now I need to take care of it to be ready for tomorrow’s race. »
