At the Hungarian Grand Prix, Nico Hülkenberg finished ninth to score his first World Championship points for Audi’s Formula 1 factory team
At the Hungarian Grand Prix, Audi scored World Championship points for the third consecutive time. This marks the first time Nico Hülkenberg has secured crucial points for the team with the four rings with his ninth-place finish. Bortoleto finished eleventh, missing the points by less than a second.
The 38-year-old’s first top-10 result had already become apparent during qualifying. While Bortoleto was eliminated as early as Q2, Hülkenberg qualified in tenth place. Only the performance of the Racing Bulls had left the more experienced Audi driver somewhat frustrated after qualifying.
At the start, the situation remained unchanged for both drivers. While Hülkenberg was running behind the two Racing Bulls, Bortoleto was battling with Esteban Ocon’s Haas. The problem? The Audi driver had started the race on soft tires and was unable to capitalize on the advantage of his tires in traffic.
“I was stuck behind Ocon for a long time,” Bortoleto explained after the race. “Once I managed to get past him, I quickly caught up to Nico and the two Racing Bulls.”
The team opted for a one-stop strategy for Bortoleto, while Hülkenberg made two pit stops for tire changes. Although this allowed last year’s rookie to briefly pull ahead of his more experienced teammate, he was unable to defend his position toward the end of the race on his older tires. As a result, Liam Lawson also passed Bortoleto on his set of soft tires.
“To be honest, it was a good strategy we tried out today,” he said after the race. “If I hadn’t lost as much time at the start, I could have benefited from it.”
In contrast, Hülkenberg was able to squeeze past not only his teammate but also Arvid Lindblad’s Racing Bull shortly before the finish. “It feels great to finally score the first points of the season,” the 38-year-old emphasized after the race.
“We got the most out of qualifying yesterday and backed that up today with a strong race. Everyone executed very well this weekend, and it’s truly rewarding to head into the summer break with points on the board.”
That was exactly what Hülkenberg had been hoping for leading up to the race. It was his performance over the weekend—especially in qualifying—that had cost him points on several occasions this season.