Nico Hulkenberg declared the Circuit of the Americas as one his favourite tracks to be added the calendar in recent years after just a single day of driving on it. The Force India driver struggled to get to grips with it, spinning on more than one occasion, but enjoys the challenge it provides.
“I think the organisers have given us an awesome circuit. It’s good fun to drive and there is a nice variation of corners, which gives a nice rhythm to the track. In terms of the new generation of tracks, I’d say it’s one of my favourites. The day was pretty smooth and we had to make sure we collected lots of data because we don’t have any historic information to draw upon. We looked competitive this morning and seemed to struggle more in the afternoon, so we need to try and find some more grip overnight.”
Hulkenberg ended the day in seventeenth with teammate Paul Di Resta eighteenth and the Briton admits the set-up isn’t where he’d like it at the moment.
“I said yesterday that getting the tyres working was going to be difficult – and so it proved today. The track surface is very smooth and the temperatures were not especially high, which probably didn’t help us. We’ve identified some issues and haven’t found the best direction with the set-up yet, so we need to work hard to make the car easier to drive. In terms of the layout of the track it’s very open and there are some nice corners, especially the first sector which has a great flow. A lot of the corners are off-camber, which also adds another challenge.”