Hulkenberg’s two mistakes that boosted Colapinto and Bearman in Baku

Nico Hulkenberg’s two mistakes in the final minutes left Formula 1 rookie drivers Franco Colapinto and Ollie Bearman, and Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton, in unfamiliar incidents at the end of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

By keeping up the pace and using his medium tyres in the first stint on Sunday, Hulkenberg was eventually tasked with passing his temporary team-mate Bearman. His impressive tyre management on the hard tyres later in the race saw him split the front-running Williams duo in two, moving up to tenth.

But on lap 48 Hulkenberg hit the approach wall of Turn 15 and Haas could not find his puncture in the data. There was also some confusion about the state of his engine at that point. The loss of momentum meant that Colapinto had to bring his Williams forward again at Turn 3 on the following lap.

At the same spot, just after Perez and Sainz’s crash, Hulkenberg failed to react in time the next time on a green flag sign just after the collision and was attacked by Hamilton and Bearman.

Nico Hulkenberg, Haas VF-24

Photo by: Andrew Ferraro / Motorsport Images

The wall incident ultimately cost Haas eighth place, given what happened between Perez and Sainz and the top 10 positions they lost, but Bearman did secure the final point with his overtake on Hulkenberg.

Komatsu told Autosport that ‘(Hulkenberg) hit something after the yellow card and got oversteered. The yellow card meant the car was done before Turn 3.’

“He said something like ‘this should be the safety car’, he was completely upset and then Hamilton and Ollie just went through.”

When asked if Haas was surprised that race control took so long to deploy a virtual safety car, or if they even thought the race would be stopped, Komatsu replied: “I thought it would be red.

“But to be honest, it’s a bit of the same mistake Nico made. I thought, ‘This should be red’. It’s like, ‘Yeah, it should be, but whatever I think it should be, it doesn’t matter, we just have to fucking focus on what’s in front of us’.

“Nico thinks it should be a safety car. Yeah, fine, but just concentrate now (would have been better).”

In an interview with the media, Hulkenberg said that in these incidents “everything that could go wrong, went wrong” and that “we lost everything”.

“So, it was very disappointing and frustrating,” he added. “Unfortunately, we have to take it as it is, wipe our mouths and move on in a few days.”

He later said the race on a track he detests “actually went better than expected” as he “found a rhythm and pace, which I’m very happy and pleased with” – given that Bearman had beaten him by 0.223 seconds and three places in qualifying for Baku.

“With the accident at the end I was surprised,” Hulkenberg explained. “For me it was a safety car on the straight or even a red flag, because there was real carnage on the straight.

“Then there was a green flag and I lost positions there and unfortunately also the result.

“The whole track was covered in debris and I drove over a huge piece of debris, which I couldn’t see because of the car in front of me.

“It was a pretty crazy last two laps, but unfortunately not in our favor.”