Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg has explained that his choice to opt for a higher downforce set-up in Formula 1’s Canadian Grand Prix left him feeling like a sitting duck”.
Hulkenberg and team-mate Kevin Magnussen capitalised on a gamble to start on Wets as the pair passed the Intermediate runners with ease to run eighth and fourth.
However, the Haas pair would drop back down the order as the track dried and a pit stop onto the Intermediate to follow the others cancelled out the earlier progress.
Hulkenberg would miss out on a first point in three races in 11th, while Magnussen bemoaned a slow stop onto Intermediates costing him as he came home in 12th.
“I think obviously the first 10 laps were going really well but then it dried out and all that came undone again so yeah that was that,” Hulkenberg said.
“We knew we’re not about that risk or not risk about that scenario and then no I think clean race, no mistakes at least.”
Although Hulkenberg gained places with a later switch onto the slicks, the German rued his high downforce set-up leaving him vulnerable to rivals on the back straight.
“I think we got a little bit unlucky with one of the Safety Cars, I feel like we missed out,” he lamented.
“In the end, it was good to wait a little bit later for the slicks because it was difficult in the first sector to keep it on track.
“I gained a few positions there but then I was running in a train with others.
“I was running high downforce so on the straights I was a sitting duck, and without DRS I was going pretty slow.”
Hulkenberg was chasing down a points finish in the closing laps when Yuki Tsunoda spun on the wet grass at Turn 8 and his RB was stranded on the track on the exit.
The Sauber-bound driver was millimetres from making contact with Tsunoda and conceded he was surprised to avoid an incident having been braced for the impact.
“With Tsunoda’s spin, I just tried to react and try to stop it and somehow avoid him but it must have been like you know by a few millimetres it felt very very close.
“So I half closed my eyes already, I was you know racing for the impact but yeah managed luckily somehow to escape it.”
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