Nico Hulkenberg relieved to return back into points after bad F1 Abu Dhabi GP qualifying, as Gabriel Bortoleto says bouncing hurt his chances in the race.
It was not the qualifying that Sauber’s Hulkenberg wanted in the final race of 2025 F1 season in Abu Dhabi GP to be knocked out in Q1. But it turned out to be a blessing in disguise as he opted for a soft tyre start. It provided him an opportunity to play with strategy which worked.
His two-stop worked to run fresher tyres in the latter stage of the grand prix when others were struggling. He managed to claw back into the points – also thanks to the penalties around him. He ended up ninth after starting out in 18th, to end a sound F1 season which didn’t start well.
He was surprised that Max Verstappen didn’t back as much. He felt there was a chance to catch Fernando Alonso in sixth had he stopped few laps earlier. But it was a strong recovery in the end. “Yeah, two guys obviously got some penalties,” said Hulkenberg to media. “So, I mean, happy end after all for the season. I think nice.
“It feels right because it’s the happy end and I think the reward that the season deserves, obviously really a couple of good highlights from our side which I’m very happy and pleased about. A few things also where we didn’t maximise the potential, as in Abu Dhabi qualifying as well. I think with a clean qualifying, we could have fought Fernando, which obviously Gabi was doing for most of the race.
“But yeah, it is what it is, happy from P18 to be in the points, I think it is a very happy end and good race. I think so, yes [stopping earlier would have worked]. But, yeah, need to review, but I think a couple of laps earlier would have been quite handy at the end. And yeah, I thought I did expect maybe, but he [Verstappen] didn’t [back up] really, right? Yeah, so…I don’t know. I think many people expected it.”
While Hulkenberg had things working on his side, teammate Bortoleto faced challenges in his final outing as a rookie driver. He qualified well in the Top 10 and pressed against Alonso in the first two stints. But bouncing issues since the start of the grand prix affected his rhythm all-through.
It started to trouble towards the end where he lost multiple places to drivers who stopped late in the race and had fresher tyres, which included teammate Hulkenberg. “Well, it was already from lap one, but I didn’t really understand why,” said Bortoleto to media. And still is something to analyse and understand because in qualifying, the whole day, we didn’t have any problem with that in the long run.
“But in the race, from laps to the grid, I was already bouncing like crazy. And I generally don’t understand what happened. And for sure, that was very annoying because in T2 and 3, I was so slow. Even if it should be an easy flat corner, I was sideways because I was touching in the middle of the corner and then bouncing, and then arrive in the braking zones and bouncing.
“So, when you hit the brakes, your rear lock, your front lock and it’s a bit of a crazy situation. I don’t really understand why. The first time that it happened we thought we’d understand why. I think in previous races, we understood that we were taking the risk of going stiff and then you deal with bouncing. But I was very careful in this weekend to have a very solid car in the race and it just came completely out of the window,” summed up Bortoleto.
Here’s Lap 1 unseen moment with Pierre Gasly for Nico Hulkenberg: https://x.com/F1/status/1998732177786146861?s=20
