Nico Hulkenberg equaled in Singapore on Saturday evening his best qualifying result of the season, the Haas driver making the top ten shootout as he maximized his session.
Hulkenberg clocked in sixth in a high intensity Q3 segment, 0.590s behind McLaren poleman Lando Norris, and just ahead of Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso.
The German benefitted from Ferrari’s botched qualifying, marked by Carlos Sainz crash and a tyre warm-up issue for Charles Leclerc. But Hulkenberg’s presence among the top ten was undeniably on merit.
“I’m very happy, that was a solid qualifying from the team,” he said after the session.
“They were clean laps and I had a good feeling and confidence in the car, which is crucial around here and on street circuits in general, and something I was missing a bit last week.”
A strong start in Sunday’s race would ensure a chance of points at the end of the day, but Hulkenberg acknowledged that the hardest part is yet to come.
“I’m happy, we didn’t leave much out there and we maximized the session. I think we were the fifth fastest team out there today,” he added.
“We have a big job ahead tomorrow and we need to close it out; we need to stay focused and bring it home.”
Commenting Hulkenberg’s performance, Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu hailed an “unbelievable team effort” on the part of his outfit’s crews, especially after difficult entry into the weekend on Friday.
“What can I say – P6 for qualifying in Singapore is an unbelievable team effort,” he said.
“It’s an amazing result and I’m so happy for everyone. Particularly how we started this weekend, FP1 was difficult and neither driver was happy with the car.
“I’m really proud of the engineering team and everyone in the garage for working together and staying calm, they followed the evolution of the track and improved the car.
“Both Nico and Kevin adapted to the new conditions and today in qualifying, the operational delivery of the session throughout Q1, Q2, and Q3 was mega. It’s a great starting point and tomorrow we’ll try to finish the job by scoring points.”
©Haas
While Kevin Magnussen made the Q2 cut, the Dane could not replicate his teammate’s performance and also earn himself a spot on the first half of the grid.
“It was very marginal even though P14 doesn’t look great,” he said. “There’s so little in it that we could’ve been in Q3, so we were just on the wrong end of those margins.
“The car is in a good place and Nico had amazing pace in quali, so I have faith we can move forward tomorrow, and we can have a good day.”
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