Hulkenberg maintains strong reputation at São Paulo
Sahara Force India scored four points in today’s Brazilian Grand Prix as Nico Hulkenberg raced to eighth place. Teammate Sergio Perez completed the race in 15th place.
Nico Hulkenberg, VJM07-04, 8th: “It was quite a cool race and very satisfying to finish in eighth. With a three-stop race you are always pushing, but my race was not too complicated and I was on my own for a large part of the afternoon. I also had a few nice battles and it was good fun. The car felt a bit better today compared to earlier in the weekend so I was more comfortable and really able to push. The team made the right calls on the strategy and we maximised our performance with the tyres in these very hot conditions. I finished just behind the two Ferraris and maybe with one or two more laps I could have finished sixth instead of eighth, but that’s racing.”
Sergio Perez, VJM07-02, 15th: “It was a difficult race and things didn’t really go my way all weekend. With the track time we lost on Friday and the grid penalty yesterday, we always knew it was going to be hard to recover the lost ground. I tried my best to fight through in the race, but I lost a lot of track position following the five-second penalty and for most of the afternoon I was stuck in traffic. I couldn’t make any progress and the cars around us were on a similar strategy. So it has been a disappointing weekend and I just hope we can have a better result in Abu Dhabi.”
Vijay Mallya, Team Principal & Managing Director: “It was an interesting race for us and I think we were involved in a lot of the overtaking action! Nico produced a very good performance, making the most of an alternative strategy and bringing home some valuable points. The only regret is that, had the race been a couple of laps longer, he could have probably finished a couple of positions higher. Checo always had his work cut out after taking the grid drop: he had a great start and was looking like he would make up quite a few places, but in the end the five-second pit-stop penalty undid all the good work he had done in the first part of the race. Today's results mean we will need a special result in Abu Dhabi, but we will not stop fighting as the maths does not rule us out. Formula One can be unpredictable and we're ready to take the championship battle for fifth down to the wire.”
