The pitlane queue during qualifying is always a bit of a case of give and take. While cars at the start of the pitlane can easily enter and exit their garage boxes, teams at the far end don’t have the same luxury. These teams struggle to enter the ‘fast lane’ as many other cars are already queued up and they have to be let in by other drivers.
These struggles usually lead to a lot of radio messages depicting the near misses and line skipping during qualifying. Something we don’t see often is car parts flying through the pit lane as this is playing out. However, this is exactly what happened to Nico Hulkenberg’s car after trying to merge into the fast lane with Lance Stroll. The latter destroyed Hülkenberg’s front wing before they even got onto the track.
Nico Hulkenberg blasts Lance Stroll over unnecessary pitlane incident
During the waiting period for the start of Q1, Nico Hulkenberg attempted to enter the fast lane by positioning his Sauber in a way that he defined as ‘the correct procedure’ in an interview with F1 media:
“When you have a front wheel crossing that white line between the pit lane, the fast lane, and the slow lane, the next driver is supposed to let you in, slot you in,” he said. “And I believe my tyre was there, so I thought he would let me in, and then he didn’t.”
“So we touched. A bit peculiar and obviously unnecessary that we lose a front wing like this. I hope we can recover it.”
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When Lance Stroll was asked the same question, he argued that since he was already in the queue, he shouldn’t have to yield to Hulkenberg, who only had a nose in
Hulkenberg’s masterclass repeat at the Belgian Grand Prix?
The German driver got out of Q1 luckily, but sadly couldn’t make it out of Q2 like his teammate. He missed out by 0.4 seconds for a chance at the top 10 places on the grid. However, we have seen some of the greatest recovery drives from Hülkenberg in recent races.
Nico Hulkenberg recovered 11 places in Austria, taking P9 from P20 on the grid, got P8 after qualifying P13 in Canada, and most recently joined the club of podium sitters after recovering an insane 17 places at Silverstone to finish P3. For this race on the other hand, Hülkenberg isn’t confident he can reproduce that result:
“It’s very tough and difficult, especially around here in Spa. It’s such a long lap as well. It can be very different conditions between one place and another place on the track, so difficult task for everyone coming up I would say.”
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Luckily for Hulkenberg, there is a fair amount of rain predicted for Sunday at Spa. If the race goes ahead, then he might have a shot at a decent recovery. Usually, the car’s performance kind of equals out in wet conditions, and then it becomes a matter of the driver behind the wheel rather than the car the driver has at their disposal. Do you think we’ll see Hülkenberg make places during the Belgian Grand Prix?
