A lucky Nico Hülkenberg managed to start the race on the front row of the grid alongside Lewis Hamilton after Nico Rosberg’s grid penalty for his gearbox change was applied to the grid, dropping him back to P6. Despite starting on the front row of the grid, things didn’t go in his favor.
Things went poorly right off of the grid, as he was overtaken almost instantly because of excess wheelspin at the start. By the end of the first lap, Hülkenberg had dropped to fourth position. By the time that he pitted to switch from the ultrasoft tyres to the supersoft tyres, he had fallen outside of the top ten. Because of the balance issues on the car, he had difficulty efficiently managing the tyre wear, which caused the tyres to drop off earlier than expected.
Near the end of the race, things escalated when Hülkenberg developed a vibration. It wasn’t clear whether the vibration was from tyre wear or whether it was a sign of an issue with the power unit. The team ended up retiring the car on lap 64.
Hülkenberg describes the Austrian Grand Prix:
“I’m pretty disappointed and gutted, to be honest. It was a really tough race and nothing really worked out for us. The start wasn’t great and I dropped a couple of positions on lap one, but the opening stint was very difficult because the car was sliding around and the tyres were graining. That became the story of my race because the balance of the car wasn’t allowing me to manage the tyres and I was suffering with so much graining. With a new set I could manage just three of four laps before they fell away. Towards the end of the race I had some vibrations with the car and the team saw that I was critical on brake wear, which is why we retired the car in the end. We have to digest and understand what happened today and then look forward to Silverstone.”
On the other side of the garage, Sergio Pérez also failed to complete the race distance. A brake failure forced the driver to go straight on in the corner and make contact with the barrier. Pérez escaped uninjured, but his car was unable to continue the final lap of the race.
Weekend Summary: 2016 Austrian Grand Prix
2016 Austrian Grand Prix Predictions
