Rough start at Monza leaves Hulkenberg disappointed

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Nico Hulkenberg didn't have the best of starts at Monza this weekend when the lights went out at the beginning of the Italian Grand Prix, and it proved to be a tough fight to ensure that the Force India driver managed to finish in the points at the end of the race.

The problems started when Max Verstappen's Red Bull went into anti-stall mode on the grid, forcing Hulkenberg to take some lightning-fast avoiding action.

"My start off the line seemed okay, but then Max in front of me really bogged down and I really had to turn around him.

"That really gave me a poor start as well, once I had to turn the car it completely broke my traction and I lost all the drive and cars passed me left and right, so that was pretty poor from the start."

After that, Hulkenberg immediately found himself in a pitched battle for track position with Williams' Felipe Massa.

"[I went] side-by-side into turn four with Felipe, and turn five obviously I had the outside, he was jumping on the kerb a bit.

"He gave me a little hit which put me off a bit on the exit, and I lost another position to [McLaren's] Fernando [Alonso] there, so not a great lap.

"Then I think in the first stint I lost a lot of time in traffic not being able to overtake Fernando, then getting overtaken by Max - all not very ideal.

Asked if he was disappointed with his tenth place finish, Hulkenberg admitted: "Slightly. Definitely. Disappointed for sure.

"Bit of a question mark, we thought we should be more competitive here but clearly there is a lesson for us to learn from this weekend/

"Wwe need to understand why that is but clearly we haven't been as competitive with the car and also not as happy with the balance as previously."

The German driver said that he was hoping for better things for Force India in a fortnight when Formula One heads to Singapore for the next race of the season.

"I think it should be good. Lower loads, lower speeds, twisty corners - that should be playing to the car's strengths so looking forward to that."

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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.