Nico Hülkenberg felt his British Grand Prix was compromised early after contact with Sergio Pérez broke his front wing and necessitated an early pit stop.
The MoneyGram Haas F1 Team driver fell to the back of the field at Silverstone as a result of his early pit stop after his front wing clipped the RB14 of Pérez, and from there on he was always fighting to come through the pack.
The safety car brought him back into contention but he couldn’t better fourteenth at the chequered flag, although this became thirteenth once Lance Stroll was handed a five-second penalty for avoidable contact.
“The race was badly impacted early on when Checo (Perez) came through on the exit of Turn 4 and we made contact,” said Hülkenberg. “A big piece of the front wing fell off one lap later and that forced us to pit early, we had to change the front wing and that cost a lot of time, and we were just behind.
“The safety car got us back onto the train of cars but then in traffic, we didn’t have enough pace to come through.”
“Tyre degradation-wise it was better than we expected” – Kevin Magnussen
Team-mate Kevin Magnussen was the first retirement from the race, the Dane grinding to a halt with an engine issue, a day after another issue ruined his Qualifying. He was forced to stop his car on the Wellington Straight, with his smoking car bringing the safety car out.
Magnussen knew he wasn’t going to be in the fight for points at Silverstone, but at least the fact that tyre degradation on Sunday was not as bad as expected was one positive to take away from the event.
“There was an issue yesterday in qualifying and then today I didn’t finish with another engine issue – so not the best weekend for us,” said Magnussen. “It’s a shame of course, but it’s not like we were in a point scoring position.
“I think tyre degradation-wise it was better than we expected. We have some work to do to find some more pace, but we just need to get our heads down, work hard, and keep pushing.”
