Nico Hulkenberg admits scoring points for Audi this season has “been a long time coming”, as the German finally finished inside the top 10 in last weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix.
Audi showed strong pace during Sunday’s 70-lap race at the Hungaroring, battling Racing Bulls for the best-of-the-rest accolade behind the leading teams.
Hulkenberg started P10 and utilised a two-stop strategy, overtaking team mate Gabriel Bortoleto and Racing Bull’s Arvid Lindblad in the closing stages with the soft tyre to claim two points for P9.
“Obviously better to have points than not. It’s been a long time coming this season,” said Hulkenberg, who was finished two seconds behind Liam Lawson’s Racing Bulls having been caught by the leading cars when a battle with the New Zealander looked possible.
“There were many occasions and opportunities this year where it should’ve happened but it didn’t for various reasons, so that was annoying but that’s racing sometimes for you.
“I and the team knew it’s there – it was just a matter of time and putting it together. Finally, the piece fell into place. We converted a solid job yesterday [in Qualifying] and today we got the reward.”
The points scored by Hulkenberg mean Audi move ahead of Williams in the Teams’ standings, with the German manufacturer occupying eighth spot in their first season of F1 heading into the summer break.
The result also means that Audi have scored points in three consecutive weekends after Bortoleto finished P8 in Britain and Belgium.
The Brazilian believes the team are heading in an upward trajectory this season and would have time to reflect during the summer break.
“I think it’s a very positive thing. I think the team have been doing an incredible job and I’m very happy with what we have been doing this season so far,” he said.
On his race in Hungary where he just missed out on the points in P11, Bortoleto added: “I think I gave it all. It obviously was not an easy race.
“I tried a one-stop strategy – it was tough to make it work, obviously, with the hard tyre being quite a bad compound compared to the soft.
“I had to extend that first stint a lot and survive like 30 laps on the soft. After that, putting on the hard, I survived another 20 laps and then after that it was pure deg, so a tough one.”