F1
Lewis Larkam 7y

Nico Hulkenberg: No point getting too excited about fifth

Formula 1

Nico Hulkenberg says there is no point "bragging" about his impressive qualifying performance at the British Grand Prix, with concerns still remaining over Renault's race pace.

During a rain-hit qualifying session, the German progressed to Q3 for the fifth time this season and went on to seal a superb sixth, which will turn into fifth on the grid after Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas' five-place grid penalty is applied.

Renault has shown glimpses of strong potential over one-lap on several occasions in 2017 but has often fallen back on Sunday's. Despite securing the team's best starting position of the year, Hulkenberg admits he is still in the dark over Renault's competitiveness in race trim.

"I'm happy -- it was quite good but we've had a couple of really good qualifying results and then a more disappointing Sunday," Hulkenberg explained. "So no point to brag on about it or get too excited, tomorrow is the hard bit of work for us and obviously where we need to win some points. We have to get it done there.

"It was tricky but I like these conditions when you are not quite sure where the grip is. There was some damp patches in Q2 so I think we were actually really competitive in those sorts of moments in Q1 and Q2 especially. When it started to dry up we were concerned we would slip through the ranks but we were able to keep the pace and hang on to the good position."

Renault's performance at Silverstone was boosted by the introduction of a new floor update, though Hulkenberg believes the French manufacturer is yet to unlock the upgrade's full potential.

"The update is working well," he said. "We still need to understand a bit how much it really brings and what it's really done and Jo on the other floor was also going really strong. Sometimes you need a bit more time with an update to optimise the set up around it and see where we on.

"Yesterday over one lap, it was going OK already, that was with the new floor. This weekend the one lap pace from Friday afternoon was actually there or thereabouts. It was OK. Since yesterday the long run was not so satisfying for me, we've changed a bit since but I can't really tell. We'll find out tomorrow I guess."

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