Despite having a troubled Friday around the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Nico Hülkenberg was beaming after qualifying seventh on the grid for the Canadian Grand Prix on Saturday, and even has eyes on making progress on race day.
The Renault Sport Formula One Team racer lost pretty much all of first practice on Friday morning with a technical issue that also ate into the early moments of the afternoon session, but Hülkenberg rebounded superbly to be best of the rest behind the leading three teams.
Hülkenberg admitted he has been feeling comfortable behind the wheel of the R.S.18 throughout the weekend in Canada, although he felt there was still a little bit of time in the car in his final Qualifying run, even though he knew it would not have boosted his grid spot.
“I’m satisfied with that today,” said Hülkenberg. “I felt a little on the back foot heading into qualifying due to the lack of running yesterday, but I’ve been confident in the car all weekend.
“I think we did the best we could in terms of position. There was probably more in me and a couple more tenths out there to extract in Q3.”
Hülkenberg believes there is a chance that Renault can make progress on Sunday after some strong-looking high fuel runs during practice.
“We have the top speed and a generally good package with the high fuel runs yesterday, so we’ll be there to fight and pick up positions tomorrow,” said the German.
