SAO PAULO, Brazil -- Nico Hulkenberg says his crash in second practice was down to wanting "a bit too much" from the car.
Hulkenberg lost control of his car and hit the wall while climbing the hill from the Juncao corner which leads to the start-finish line. It put the Renault driver out of the rest of the session, with the car damaging both its right wheels and suspensions in the process.
Explaining what happened, Hulkenberg said: "I ran a bit too wide at the exit of the last corner, took a little bit too much kerb there, wanted a bit too much probably.
"The car bottomed out, and from there it was done, I was a passenger. Once I bottomed out that really pulled me out of the track and onto the grass. Obviously no grip on the grass, and it was inevitable from there that I would hit the wall. It's a pity and it's frustrating. Obviously it's far from ideal to crash on a Friday, it's not what I want, but unfortunately it happened today."
He is confident his car avoided the sort of damage that can lead to a grid penalty -- changing a gearbox out of sequence usually leads to a drop of five places.
Hulkenberg and Renault enjoyed a very strong double-header in the U.S. and Mexico but found its cars outside the top ten in both Friday practice sessions.
"I think we don't look as competitive as in Mexico and in Austin. A little bit as expected, this track is a bit more challenging for us in the balance that we face. Challenging weekend ahead."