Saturday: Nico Hülkenberg and Sahara Force India drowned at Spa
The weather did not favor Nico Hülkenberg, who usually enjoys such challenging conditions. The German driver will have a tough task tomorrow as he did not clear Q1 and will start 18th. As for Sergio Pérez, he couldn't make it to Q3 and will start from 13th place.
Sergio Perez (No. 11) – 11th and 13th
The Sahara Force India Mexican driver couldn’t find the right compromise in his rain setup: « It hasn’t been the easiest day for us. I struggled in the rain and that was our main problem today. I wanted to be higher on the grid but we didn’t optimize everything. »
As tomorrow’s race is expected to be held on a dry track, Sergio Pérez remains confident about scoring points tomorrow: « I’m more optimistic for tomorrow. We should have a better race pace. 13th isn’t so bad to start from, and I’m sure we can move forward and gain some places. »
Nico Hülkenberg (No. 27) – 14th and 18th
The disappointment is palpable for Nico Hülkenberg, who couldn’t get past the first part of the session. One of the reasons is that he decided to run the entire session on the same set of intermediate tires, which ended up being destroyed by the end: « It was a tough session in tricky conditions. Initially, things were looking good. I was on the pace and we decided to stick with one set of intermediates for the whole session. That might have been a factor in missing Q2 since my tires were quite old and damaged by the end of the session. »
However, the German driver also acknowledges that he has his share of responsibility in this failure: Q2 should have been achievable but I made mistakes in my last two laps. I missed my braking in the last corner, went wide, and lost time.
Like his teammate, he thinks he has the car to allow him to climb back up: « For tomorrow’s race, I think we can make up ground because we have a strong car over long stints, and yesterday in the dry, the pace looked promising. »
