Nico Hulkenberg was delighted to secure fourth place on the grid for his home Grand Prix at Hockenheim tomorrow. The German coped better than many others in the full wet conditions of Q3 although he admitted himself he was lucky to get away with a moment on the back straight.
“I feel very excited because it's always special to qualify well, especially at your home race. It was a session that had a bit of everything because we ran on slicks, intermediates and wets. I think the most tricky conditions came during Q3 when I even aquaplaned off the track during my out lap and went into the gravel. Fortunately I was lucky and able to continue, but there was very little grip on the track. When you start high up you naturally want to finish high up as well and I hope we can have strong race. It will probably be dry tomorrow and there are a lot of quick cars behind us so we will need to think carefully to make the strategy work.”
Force India teammate Paul Di Resta also made it into Q3 but got the shorter end of the stick, finishing ninth after encountering traffic. The Briton is still happy with his starting position though and is eying a points finish tomorrow.
“It was a very difficult session and the rain didn't make life easy for anybody because there was so much aquaplaning on the back straight with two or three big puddles. Towards the end of Q3 I was getting ready for my final run but the traffic didn't really work out for me and I struggled to get the lap when it really counted. Still, we made it into the top ten so I'm happy, but you always want to be a bit further up the grid. We think it will be dry tomorrow so it was important to get lots of running during final practice this morning to build up a feel for the car in the dry. We are definitely in a good position to score points tomorrow and I'm ready to fight and move forward in the race.”
