Nico Hulkenberg is beginning to make a behavior of scoring factors, because the Kick Sauber driver got here residence eighth in Canada so as to add to his sensible fifth final outing in Spain.
His current run of outcomes has lifted Kick Sauber from the underside of the desk within the Teams’ Championship, and they’re now simply eight factors off P6 because the midfield pack tightens up as soon as once more.
For Sauber, it’s additional proof that their improve path is the precise one, with Hulkenberg in a position to make use of his up to date automotive to good impact when combating his midfield rivals. Whereas he didn’t fairly have the tempo to catch the Ferraris, like in Barcelona, the German was nonetheless happy with a race that included some “enjoyable” overtakes.
“Properly two occasions in [the top 10 in] a row, that’s good!,” Hulkenberg stated after the race in Montreal. “Could be good if we will proceed the development from right here however clearly undoubtedly some momentum on our facet.
“A bit as I suspected in race trim the automotive comes alive a bit extra, the replace actually paying dividends and simply having higher consistency and a greater stability within the automotive so yeah fairly nice, made some good positive aspects.
“Franco [Colapinto] and Alex [Albon] have been combating in Flip 9 Lap 1 and I managed to capitalise on that and was a reasonably clear race. A few overtakes to do, fairly enjoyable racing and managing tyres mainly.”
Hulkenberg’s race craft stays sharp, the German very happy to pounce on that opening lap when his rivals tangled, earlier than executing a one-stop technique that noticed him make his arduous tyres final 51 laps.
Whereas his drive lacked the showiness of his Barcelona race, the place he overtook Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari, it was his third rating of the season and first in a race that didn’t function variables like rain or mid-race Security Automobiles.
As such, there are excessive hopes of extra factors on the coming races – whatever the traits of the tracks in query. Hulkenberg was requested if he can hold scoring, and he was clear that he sees no motive why he received’t be that includes within the high 10 extra typically shifting ahead.
“We’ve had two very totally different tracks right here and in Barcelona” he stated. “On each we have been aggressive within the midfield so there’s no motive to assume why not.”
Crew Principal Jonathan Wheatley was additionally fast to reward Hulkenberg’s drive in Montreal, because the staff’s one-stop technique “proved to be spot on,” calling the environment throughout the squad “implausible.”