Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsForce India

Mallya: Force India 'proud' of Hulkenberg

Vijay Mallya says he and Force India are "proud" and "delighted" for Nico Hulkenberg after his Le Mans 24 Hours victory.

The Force India driver was allowed to race for Porsche in this year's race and duly went on to win on debut at Le Mans alongside Nick Tandy and Earl Bamber. With Mallya giving his driver permission to take part in the race, the Force India team principal took to Twitter to offer his congratulations.

"Bravo Nico!" Mallya tweeted. "Many congratulations for winning Le Mans on debut. All of us at Force India are proud of you.

"Nico becomes the first active Formula One driver to win Le Mans after a gap of 24 years. All of us at Force India delighted."

Hulkenberg himself responded to Mallya's tweets, thanking his team principal for allowing him to take part, replying: "Thanks VJ! You made this possible."

Following the race, Hulkenberg was also asked if he would return in 2016 with the same line-up at Porsche, but he simply said “We’ll see about that," with next year's F1 calendar yet to be confirmed and reports of a clash between Le Mans and Canada.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.