"A few things went wrong"

Hülkenberg’s record – but he didn’t want it

Nico Hülkenberg(Bild: AFP/Natalia KOLESNIKOVA)

While team-mate Oliver Bearman raced to a sensational tenth place, Nico Hülkenberg came away empty-handed in Baku. He finished eleventh, narrowly missing out on the points and setting an inglorious record in the process.

Since Sunday, the veteran has been the Formula 1 driver who has missed out on the points by one place most often in the course of a season. For the seventh time this year, the 37-year-old German finished in a thankless eleventh place. He had previously shared first place in this statistic with Michele Alboreto, who missed out on the points by one place six times in the 1992 Formula 1 season.

Nico Hülkenberg(Bild: AFP/Natalia KOLESNIKOVA)

Nico Hülkenberg(Bild: AFP/Andrej ISAKOVIC)

Things had actually looked really good for Hülkenberg in Baku. "It was a good race, it looked promising," he told ServusTV. "I think it was P10 before Carlos and Checo had the accident and everything was actually under control and then things went wrong on the last two laps." A few laps before the end, the Haas driver touched the wall and is said to have been in the wrong engine mode. Hülkenberg lost a lot of time and Williams youngster Franco Colapinto overtook him.

A little later, he probably saw the green flag too late after the crash between Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz. In the end, Mercedes star Lewis Hamilton and team-mate Oliver Bearman overtook him at the finish. Only then was the virtual safety car activated.

"I let you down"
 "Checkered flag, Nico. Checkered flag. Press the in button. I'm sorry, Nico," radioed his race engineer Gary Gannon after crossing the finish line. Hülkenberg was disappointed: "You don't need to be sorry, I have to apologize. I let you down, I let us down today. That was actually one of our best races this year."