Nico Hülkenberg finished a strong P7 in the F1 Las Vegas GP following the disqualification of both McLarens post-race.
Starting P10, he dropped behind Ollie Bearman after a wild turn 1 for most of the field, although Pierre Gasly’s demise meant he stayed 10th.
In the first stint he tracked Fernando Alonso and Bearman throughout it. After the Spanish driver boxed relatively early on lap 16, he overtook the Haas just before the Brit boxed a tour later.
Nico Hülkenberg on the early stages of the F1 Las Vegas GP
As he followed the Aston Martin and Haas cars quite closely in the early stages, Hülkenberg knew a one-stop race was easily attainable as the degradation on the mediums was low. There was not much graining either.
“Yeah, after the first 10-15 laps, obviously I saw even the medium runners ahead of me, they were not really degging off, there was no graining for them, and my tyres were also feeling okay. I think the hard was the best tyre this weekend.
“Once Fernando pitted and I think Ollie locked up, so I got Ollie just before he pitted, I knew we were in good shape to beat these guys at least.
“Everyone else that started in front of us I think were probably slightly faster than us this weekend, so I guess we extracted the best.”
How Nico Hülkenberg held off Lewis Hamilton in F1 Las Vegas GP
Just like when he finished on the podium for the first time at Silverstone earlier this year, the German veteran is his Sauber had to deal with plenty of pressure from Lewis Hamilton.
As he was following Hülkenberg very closely at the end of the opening stint, Ferrari boxed the seven-time World Champion at the end of lap 29 to try and get an undercut. A poor out lap from Hamilton meant Sauber could cover and Hülkenberg retained track position, however.
On mediums, Hülkenberg was faster and ultimately finished 8.2s clear of Hamilton to finish P9 on the road. The disaster for McLaren gave him six points in the end.
“I mean, at the beginning obviously on hard, he pitted first. Then obviously we kind of covered and they had a slow stop, so that was helpful in a way. Then I think on the medium, I don’t know, it looked, it was controllable.
“And obviously then I kept finding more and more pace and he somehow had a bit of a struggle. I think he got halfway through the second stint and then dropped off a little bit.
“So yeah, it turned out to be pretty successful.”
After the F1 Las Vegas GP, Nico Hülkenberg is P10 in the Drivers’ Championship on 49 points, a single one ahead of Carlos Sainz.
