Nico Hulkenberg reflects on Top 5 finish in F1 Spanish GP, as he adds on the pass on Lewis Hamilton and updates working potentially with flexi-wing change.
After he was knocked out from Q1 in F1 Spanish GP, Sauber’s Hulkenberg was left dejected missing out on a certain Q2, especially since teammate Gabriel Bortoleto ended up at a higher position. But the race saw the German pass the Brazilian on Lap 1 itself after a storming start.
He had to take evasive action like Bortoleto in the run-off but he was already at the edge of the Top 10 after Lap 1. He made it in after a brief back and forth with Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso. He shuffled out but came back through to run at the fag end of the points places.
His real chance came when safety car was deployed. He pitted for a fresh set of soft and hustled Visa Cash App RB’s Isack Hadjar in quick time to be seventh. The tyre helped him to push Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton too. After couple of laps, he managed to clear him for sixth.
It ended up being fifth after the penalty to Nico Hulkenberg. Not only it was Hulkenberg’s best result of the season, but he matched his last best result of fifth in 2019 with Renault. The Q1 exit was a blessing in disguise as he had several set of soft tyres to use, which was key.
“It was a great race, just one of them races where everything seemed to click and work out,” he said to media. “Beautiful when it happens, doesn’t happen that often, unfortunately, but today it did. Having all these new tyres, being out in Q1, actually was really useful and helpful today. From 16th to have the start in lap one that I had, it kind of immediately reset the race and then put us into the fight for a good result. Obviously the late safety car and then having another set of soft did the rest of it.
“So very happy and obviously we take that. But that’s just if you bring updates and performance that works, you can help yourself. On Lap 1, there was a car coming sliding across so both Gabi and I had to avoid turn two and avoid some car, I’m not sure who it was. And had a bit of fight with Fernando also, I think for one or two laps, but wrestled him down in the end. Yeah, that was good.
“It’s obviously a very sweet moment. Second time with points this year but only since Melbourne, it’s obviously been a bit of a dry patch. It’s been difficult but I believe it puts us more on the map in the midfield fight. We’ve found the connection to that train. In quali, things are very tight and everything needs to be right, but I feel like in the races hopefully we can be there and push into it and fight with all these other guys more.
“I was pretty upset about how quali happened, obviously hindsight, it was a good thing, with having all new tyres but obviously you never know, you never are guaranteed on Lap 1 at the start that I had, but somehow I wanted to make things right and it worked out. The move on Lewis, he only had a used soft left. That’s what you see even though he’s in a Ferrari with how important and how powerful the tyres are. He was just sliding around a lot and I had new boots which made all the difference.
“P5 is – we can only dream of the normal races and circumstances. But I think obviously it was a P8 or P9 before the Safety Car, which already would have been really, really good for us. Everyone in the factory can be happy that the update delivered. It’s what we needed, but we can’t stop here, because nobody stops. We need more of the same,” summed up Hulkenberg.
Sauber brought significant update to Barcelona, which is one of the few that remains before 100% focus on 2026. Hulkenberg started the weekend using it as Bortoleto got it from Saturday onward. Both were happy with how things panned out, in terms of the updates delivering.
Hulkenberg suspected that the flexi-wing regulation change may have contributed in it too. “To be honest I think it’s more the updates,” he said. “Maybe it’s the technical TD, the flexi wing stuff that others paid more of a price than us because honestly, I feel for us it didn’t change that much. I don’t feel much different in high speed and to be honest high speed so far has been not our strongest point so I tend to believe it is the update.”
Here’s Nico Hulkenberg passing Lewis Hamilton: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2025-spanish-grand-prix-hulkenberg-powers-past-hamilton-to-grab-p6-on-penultimate-lap.1833745324205601569
Here’s how F1 Spanish GP panned out
