Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsForce India

Hulkenberg buoyed by further Force India improvements

Nico Hulkenberg says Force India has made another step forward during the two Friday practice sessions ahead of the Italian Grand Prix.

With Force India having been competitive at Spa-Francorchamps, the team was strong throughout FP1 and FP2 at Monza with both cars finishing each session in the top five. Hulkenberg - who signed a new two-year deal earlier this week - says he feels more progress for the team but is unsure if it will translate in to a similar result on Saturday.

“The car has improved again," Hulkenberg said. "It is feeling pretty good here today and I mean, you see it in the lap times, we were quite competitive today but it is only Friday. We’ve seen it a few times this year, on a more green track,we are quite competitive and come Saturday Williams find a bit more performance, some other teams as well.

"It’s very close if you look around us, Williams, Lotus, Ferrari, we’re all quite close together and the smallest mistake can make a big difference. It’s only Friday, tomorrow and Sunday it counts and we have to put it all together."

While not ruling out a top six grid slot, Hulkenberg says he has learned not to get ahead of himself having hit reliability issues in Belgium.

"We need to give it our best efforts. We saw that in Spa, a little problem for me meant we were out of the top 10. When it comes there [qualifying], everybody obviously puts the best engine mode and low fuel and anything can happen but I think the car definitely has the potential and the capability of being in the top 10."

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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.