Nico Hülkenberg was running in an encouraging fourth place in the early stages of the Mexican Grand Prix on Sunday, only to see another strong result slip through his fingers thanks to an ERS failure on his RS17.
The Renault Sport Formula 1 Team racer had moved up from seventh place on the grid to run just behind Esteban Ocon, thanks to the early misfortune of Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel, who suffered a puncture and a broken front wing respectively in a first lap, turn three clash, while Kimi Raikkonen also dropped back from his starting position.
But Hülkenberg, who holds the record for the most Grand Prix without a podium finish, could not capitalise, with the ERS failure ending his adventure after just twenty-four laps, his third consecutive race weekend where he has failed to see the chequered flag after retiring early in both the Japanese and United States Grand Prix.
“It was a very frustrating race today, I’m disappointed,” said Hülkenberg, who has fallen to twelfth in the Drivers’ Championship due to Lance Stroll finishing sixth in Mexico. “We were doing well and a very good result slipped through our fingers.
“We have some work to do on reliability because we lost some potential points today. It’s a shame but this is racing.”
