A catastrophic front wing failure cost Nico Hulkenberg the chance of a fourth consecutive points finish of the season at the Hungaroring on Sunday, with the Sahara Force India driver ending his race in the turn one barriers as a result.
After making a great start, Hulkenberg was running comfortable inside the top ten, but revealed he received virtually no warning about the imminent failure of his wing, which folded underneath his car and despite the German locking up his tyres, took him straight into the tyre wall.
“It’s a shame we lost the opportunity to get a great result today,” reflected Hulkenberg. “I didn’t have much warning that there was a problem with the front wing – there was a harsh vibration just before it broke and after that I was heading straight into the barriers.
“The final impact was not too bad because that part of the track is well protected and it absorbed the energy nicely.”
Hulkenberg had been pleased with his race pace up until his crash, and insists he heads into the mid-season summer break with the knowledge he has a competitive car.
“Up until the accident, things were looking very positive,” said Hulkenberg. “I had made a great start and was racing with the Red Bulls, which shows the step forward we have made with the b-spec car.
“The good news is that we have time over the next week to analyse what happened today and get the solutions in place before the summer break.
“Reliability has been a real strength of ours this season so it’s unusual for us to have these issues and the team will do its homework before we arrive in Spa. I go into the summer break knowing that we are competitive and that we can have a strong second half of the season.”
