Nico Hülkenberg and Sauber came close to their second points finish of 2025, running as high as seventh before ultimately finishing twelfth at the F1 Imola GP.
On a long first stint, Sauber and Hülkenberg move up at F1 Imola GP
Starting just 17th, Hülkenberg took advantage of other teams’ pitting early to make his way up the order. He was as high as seventh after Lance Stroll’s pit stop on lap 14, but began sliding backwards as the early pitters’ tyres gained the traction advantage. Hülkenberg and Sauber finally swapped out their used hard tyres for the medium compound on lap 29, during the Virtual Safety Car brought out by Esteban Ocon’s retirement.
“I think that put us in front of a lot of people. It was obviously a cheap stop.”
While that may have been a cheap stop, it was one that allowed Sauber to stick to a one-stop strategy. This would elevate him back into the points when other cars came in for their final stops during the Safety Car period to recover Kimi Antonelli’s W16.
Lap 47 Safety Car resets the field–and everyone’s strategy
“Obviously the Safety Car helped bridge some of the tyre life discrepancy. But at the same time it put everyone back together and put Yuki [Tsunoda] right behind me and Fernando [Alonso] with fresh tyres, so that was obviously the flip side of that.”
Indeed, Tsunoda–who had to start from the pitlane after his wreck in qualifying–was the only other driver to have a one-stop race. Shortly after the race went green on lap 54, his Red Bull passed Hulkenberg’s Sauber for 10th. With five laps left, Alonso–one of the drivers to come in under the safety car–overtook Hülkenberg as well.
After F1 Imola GP, Hulkenberg and Sauber debrief and regroup
After the race Hülkenberg said at that point the car was “just missing a little bit halfway through the tyre life, my medium was, and I was just struggling a bit too much to keep up with these guys.
“We’ll process and digest this weekend now and prepare [for] Monaco.”
