29 Jul 2012

Nico Hülkenberg will start the Hungarian Grand Prix from 10^th place, having made it through to Q3 on a day when many big names – including two 2012 race winners and a former World Champion – failed to do so. Nico is now targeting a good helping of points on Sunday for Sahara Force India.

You are ahead of both Saubers – is it important to capitalise on that in terms of the constructors’ championship?
“I think we’re just looking to optimise our chances and our performance each weekend. Obviously we are here to score points and to stay within reach of Williams and Sauber, even though Sauber is quite far away. We just want to try to maximise our performance each weekend and take away as much as we can.”

What sort of range of strategies do you think we’ll see on Sunday? People are talking about one being possible…
“It’s quite a tough circuit, quite quick corners, and 70 laps around here with only one stop, it would get quite tough in the end. It will be a bit of a surprise and question mark going into the race, because we missed the long runs on Friday. We saw some people doing them this morning, but it’s not quite the same.”

Were you able to get all the data you wanted?
“Not really, obviously you miss that long run. I haven’t done a long run on the soft, only on the medium, 10 laps this morning, which is giving you an idea and a feeling for the car with heavy fuel. But it’s not like a Friday afternoon.”

Do you think you have stronger race pace than last week?
“I think naturally this circuit fits our car a little bit better than Hockenheim.”

You are starting on the dirty side of the grid. Is that a concern?
“I think it’s not ideal, from what we’ve seen in the past, but we’ll just have to manage it as well as we can.”

Do you think there will be much passing tomorrow?
“I think there will be some passing, especially when people start to struggle with tyre degradation. There will be some opportunities for overtaking.”

What about the possibility of rain?
“I think it will be later on in the afternoon, but not at 2pm.”

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