Nico Hülkenberg was left to reflect on a disappointing Monaco Grand Prix where nothing appeared to go his way, right from the moment Charles Leclerc sliced open his tyre at Rascasse on lap seven.
The Renault F1 Team racer was running just outside the points when Scuderia Ferrari’s Leclerc made a lunch up the inside at Rascasse, only to hit the inside wall and clip Hülkenberg’s rear tyre.
Unfortunately, the subsequent pit stop at the end of the following lap was just at the wrong time for the German as the safety car was then deployed, enabling many other drivers to get ahead of him as they all pitted with much less time lost in doing so. Hülkenberg was left at the back of the pack with a mountain to climb if he was to get into the points.
“Nothing went our way today,” said Hülkenberg. “We made a decent start, kept it clean off the line and then we suffered a puncture after Charles [Leclerc] sliced my tyre open.
“Luckily, I didn’t hit the wall, but the Safety Car meant everyone gained on me and from then, I was at the back of the train and it was difficult to recover from there.”
Ultimately, Hülkenberg was able to recover to finish fourteenth on the road, which became thirteenth thanks to a penalty post-race for Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen, but the outcome was not what the German was hoping for and not where he feels the R.S.19 deserves to be.
“It’s hard to take as the results today don’t reflect the competitiveness level of Renault at the moment,” said the German. “With a clear track at the end, we showed very good pace. The car had more performance and potential than what the result showed.
“But, that’s racing sometimes and we need to make the most of the opportunities in Canada.”
