Are the days of “Mr. Saturday” over? Hülkenberg fails early again in Zandvoort, while rookie Bortoleto takes his Sauber into Q2
Former “Mr. Saturday” Nico Hülkenberg, seems to have run out of steam a little since Canada. In qualifying for the Dutch Grand Prix, the Sauber driver not only finished in a disappointing 17th place, but for the fifth time in a row he will start behind his teammate Gabriel Bortoleto.
However, while the Brazilian managed to save himself in Q2 with a margin of six hundredths of a second ahead of Franco Colapinto, ultimately finishing in 13th place, Hülkenberg was once again eliminated in Q1!
And that was despite three attempts to somehow burn a usable time into the asphalt at Zandvoort. In the end, it was still close, with Bortoleto just 0.15 seconds ahead. But where did Hülkenberg lose time?
Hülkenberg didn’t want to blame his Saturday result on the wind alone when speaking to ORF: “I mean, the wind is the same for everyone. There’s no need to sugarcoat it.” He seems to have identified the missing hundredths of a second primarily in two corners:
“Turn three and turn 13. I always lost time there, and that’s enough,” said the Sauber driver in conversation with Stuart Codling after his early exit. The 38-year-old is also not really satisfied with the car at the moment: “There are always things you want to improve. But in the end, you have to work with what you have and try to get the most out of qualifying.”
Teammate Gabriel Bortoleto made it to Q2, but was also annoyed about not making the most of qualifying. “If that had happened at the start of the season, I would have been happy. But I’ve already been in Q3 twice now, so you want more,” said the rookie. “Today, I just didn’t get everything together. I also had a bit of traffic with Yuki [Tsunoda] in the middle sector, which didn’t help.”
Bortoleto also finds the car difficult to drive on the technically demanding Zandvoort circuit: “It’s very windy, and the wind direction is constantly changing. I don’t feel as confident as I did in Budapest. But that’s just the way it is – you don’t have the perfect car every weekend. Even with Max, you could see that it goes up and down.”
Catch-up race on Sunday?
So can we look forward to another catch-up race, like the one Hülkenberg put on at the British Grand Prix in Silverstone, for example? “Overtaking is almost as hard here as it is in Hungary. Add to that the strong, gusty wind—that already bothered us in Silverstone. Maybe it’s all connected.“
However, on the narrow, twisty track in the dunes, it will be a challenge for both of them to finish in the points. Hülkenberg is pragmatically hoping for changeable weather on the south coast of Holland: ”A little help from the weather would certainly help us.”
At least the German driver’s long runs didn’t look too bad in Friday’s practice sessions.
