Nico Hülkenberg had an almost perfect weekend at Valencia as he blew away the opposition to extend his lead in the GP2 series.
The ART Grand Prix driver started his weekend with an excellent performance in qualifying to claim pole position; “Pole position was not that easy to grab but the car felt great thanks to the team's hard work. I felt comfortable and confident, the circuit has a good rhythm and I just went for it.”
In an action packed race the young German suffered from the heat like his F1 counterparts, and was angry with himself for a mistake going in to the first turn.
“It was really hot in the race and my slight mistake in the first turn cost me dearly when I was a bit too optimistic under braking because it was definitely not easy to follow another car the whole race without missing a line here and there. I got past Perez but after that basically I was stuck behind Petrov. He did not make any mistakes and I did not want to take any silly risks because it was really not easy to overtake on this circuit. At least I could do the fastest lap which allowed me, along with pole position, to get more points than Petrov in the first race”
Hülkenberg kept positive for the second race and stormed through the opposition to take his forth win of the season.
“In the second race, I took the inside line and that was a good move. I was already P3 at the end of the first lap and from then on I made sure I did not make any mistakes. This fourth win was really pleasant and I want to thank each and every member of ART Grand Prix.”
Despite his lead in the championship he remains grounded, “20 points is a nice gap but there are still 60 points left and the championship is certainly not over. We will go to Spa with the will to win.”
Team boss Frederic Vasseur was understandingly happy after the races but rued about missed opportunities with the teams other driver Pastor Maldonado, “With pole position, the win, the 2nd place and two fastest laps in race for Nico we weren't that far from the perfect weekend but an incident due to a collision between Pastor and another driver caused the car to be in breach of the technical regulations. It is a shame because without this incident that compromised both his races I'm sure Pastor would have been able to show he is always great on a street circuit.”
Overall Vasseur was happy with the weekend saying “Having said that, the review of the weekend is positive for ART Grand Prix as our level of performance was excellent and as we widen the gap with our rivals in both championship.”
