Nico Hülkenberg was a surprise elimination in the opening phase of Qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix on Saturday, but the German still has ambitions to break into the top ten on Sunday.
The Renault Sport Formula One Team racer suffered with a fuel system problem during Saturday afternoon’s session around the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya and found himself on the wrong side of the cut off point to advance to Q2 as a result, missing out by 0.038 seconds to Stoffel Vandoorne and will ultimately start sixteenth.
Hülkenberg acknowledges that the problems on Saturday will make Sunday all the more difficult, but after three points finishes in the opening four Grand Prix and a strong performance in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix before he hit the wall, he has confidence he can score points.
“We had some problems with the fuel system causing the pressure to drop which impacted on power delivery,” said Hülkenberg. “This was very unexpected and we’ll be looking into why it’s happened.
“It will make our day tomorrow more difficult as we know overtaking is very tough around here. We’ll have to work out a strategy and hopefully come through it.
“We’re still aiming to clinch points. We’ll try our best and race hard.”
