Nico Hulkenberg has been handed a three-place grid penalty for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix that drops him behind Pierre Gasly after a pit lane exit infringement in qualifying.
Alpine leads Haas by five points in the constructors’ standings as the pair fight for sixth place in the final classification, with the difference between positions being worth in the region of $10 million. Hulkenberg impressed with a surprise fourth place in qualifying at the Yas Marina Circuit, but was then hit with the grid penalty for passing a car in the pit exit road, against the race directors’ instructions.
“The driver did not dispute during the hearing that he did not follow the race director’s instructions, but stated that he had no other option but to breach the rules in order to get a lap in,” the stewards’ decision read.
“Whilst the stewards acknowledge that the position of the team’s garages limits their options to send the cars out on track, this can never be used as an excuse to breach any regulations.
“The prohibition of overtaking in certain areas as the pit lane or, in this case, the pit exit, is implemented to prevent potentially dangerous situations and therefore the stewards determine that a grid drop is warranted in this case.”
The penalty promotes Gasly ahead of Hulkenberg from sixth to fifth — with Hulkenberg now seventh — but speaking prior to the penalty the German admitted his qualifying produced a better result than he’d predicted.
“I was expecting a top-10 result for sure, because that’s where we’ve been all weekend and the car felt strong every session pretty much,” Hulkenberg (pictured above) said. “So I kind of knew that was a must-do, but P4 is definitely more than what I expected and hoped for. A very strong session, which goes down to a really strong-performing car and good team effort.”
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Hulkenberg believes he has the car pace to bring home a big haul of points for Haas, but says Alpine will be a threat throughout.
“I think it’s close and going to be a tight and tough battle for sure,” he said. “Alpine’s been strong lately, but we are all so close together so it really comes down to all the racing moments, strategy, etc. It’s just important for me personally that we maximize tomorrow, leave nothing out there and hopefully we can have a happy end tomorrow night.”
Gasly also was impressed with his Alpine’s performance after another top-six result in qualifying.
“It was amazing,” Gasly said. “All through practice outside the top 10 and really struggling with the car, not finding the right balance. We made a lot of changes throughout the whole weekend, a lot of changes before qualifying, which doesn’t bring a lot of confidence because you never really know what you’re going to get out there, but then in the end it was really positive.
“We managed to get the car clicking and put some very strong laps together in Q2 and Q3. Outqualified George [Russell] who was on pole last week, so it just shows how much performance we managed to improve on the car, especially since the start of the year. So very happy.
“Unfortunately for us [Hulkenberg] was very fast as well which keeps the pressure on for tomorrow, but I’m definitely looking forward to the battle.”
The Frenchman suggests there is more pressure on Haas than Alpine given the points situation, and that he will have the car pace to fight with Hulkenberg on Sunday.
“The good thing is we are slightly more relaxed — we are five points ahead of them so they definitely need to finish ahead of us,” he said. “But on the other side I think they’re looking pretty strong. Tomorrow is a very different exercise, a lot of degradation and a lot of graining. I think we will have the car to fight them and battle them, and I’m excited to see what we can get out of it.”
