Hulkenberg: Switch to slicks was right call for Haas

Nico Hulkenberg insisted that the Haas team's decision to call him into the pits to change from intermediate tyres to slicks was the right call in the circumstances, and was responsible for today's points success.

Hulkenberg had qualified for the sprint race in fourth place, and he had the perfect vantage point to watch as Red Bull pair Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez battled it out in the rain through turn 1.

Perez was blocked by his team mate at the apex of turn 3 who was struggling to slow the rear of the RB19 and ran deep into the corner. Hulkenberg took advantage of the situation toi surge past Perez for second.

• Read also: Verstappen and Perez win entertaining wet Austria sprint

But after a further 12 laps, the Haas was eating through its initial set of inters and succumbed to Perez and Carlos Sainz in rapid succession, and was coming under heavy pressure from Alpine's Esteban Ocon.

With a hint of a dry line emerging despite light rain, the team gambled on calling Hulkenberg in for a set of mediums for the final stint - and it paid off. Although he initially dropped back to P12 he was soon on the march.

By the time he reached the finish line, Hulkenberg had blasted past the likes of Pierre Gasly, Lando Norris and finally Ocon to secure sixth place and a healthy trio of championship points.

"It was eventful and busy, but obviously positive," he told the media in the paddock at the Red Bull Ring afterwards. "We didn't really expect to have points in the sprint race coming here.

"I'm happy to have more points on the board" he continued. "It was a fun race with mixed conditions. It was a good job I think from the team, and we rewarded ourselves."

The pit stop did drop him behind the two Aston Martin cars, which remained ahead to the finish, but Hulkenberg said there was nothing the team could have done about that today.

"For us it was the only decision because the Intermediate tyre was just giving up too much," he explained. "Seeing how others were catching me, I didn't have the grip anymore so it was pretty straightforward.

"My inters were going away from me, I was going backwards more than others and the track was kind of ready for slicks, so we opted for that decision, and it was the right call for us."

By the time Hulkenberg came in, George Russell had already provided 'proof of concept' of the strategy, pitting from P13 and immediately setting purple sectors on his return.

"George was obviously the first guy that left before and the team said it's looking okay, and I felt also that it was about time," Hulkenberg confirmed.

"It’s been a good day for us today," confirmed Haas team principal Guenther Steiner, who was pleased to see both Hulkenberg and team mate Kevin Magnussen make it into the final round of the sprint showdown earlier in the day.

"Nico getting some points was very important, and very good for the team," he said. "Bagging three points in a Sprint is good for us. Tomorrow we start with one car in the top ten and hopefully we’ll get some more.

The weather had certainly been a help for Haas today, Steiner acknowledged: "Under these difficult conditions we’re normally doing a very good job. We’ve got some work to do on the car but we’ll get there [tomorrow] as well."

Unfortunately Magnussen didn't have the same opportunity to score points as his team mate and ended up P14 at the line.

"It was a disappointing Sprint race for me. There were tricky conditions out there, especially going onto dry tyres in damp conditions," he said. "The pace wasn’t there.

"Those are usually conditions that I like, but I didn’t really get anything out of it today. I just didn’t really have great pace on either the intermediates or the dry tyres. It’s disappointing.

"I need to see how we can understand it, and of course I’ll look at my teammate and see where he was. He was faster than me, so I need to see how I can improve."

Magnussen will start tomorrow's Grand Prix from the back row, while Hulkenberg will once again be in the top ten when he lines up in eighth for lights out.

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