“Big frustration,” said Hulkenberg reflecting on that moment. “All the good work from yesterday was put in the bin. We lost another front wing, which is also very annoying.”
Although Hulkenberg was able to continue following a pit stop for a new front wing, he finished outside the points, in 13th place.
“It was just messy,” he said of the collision, which the stewards deemed to be a racing incident.
“I saw a replay of it, and Oscar turned in pretty aggressively. He wanted to get the undercut and the run on the exit of Turn 1, but I was kind of there. I can’t just disappear, and I had Fernando [Alonso] on the inside.
“I couldn’t see him anymore. I saw in my peripheral vision that he had dived in, and then you don’t see a car anymore, so I wanted to leave space for him in case he didn’t have it under control.
“Then Oscar turned in, and contact was inevitable.”
While Hulkenberg was unable to deliver on his top-four start in the Sprint he will hope to rediscover his turn of pace when Qualifying gets underway later on.
