Nico Hulkenberg celebrated his first Formula 1 podium at the British Grand Prix and has since spoken about the “overwhelming” aftermath of the milestone achievement.
The Sauber driver capitalised on the wet weather at the Silverstone circuit and managed a third-place finish after starting from 19th place on the grid.
Talking with the media ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix weekend, he reflected on his maiden podium.
“Yeah. Surprisingly, they’ve been very good,” the German driver explained when asked how the two-week break was after celebrating the podium.
“Nice to have a bit of time after and to enjoy the moment properly and not dive straight into the next Grand Prix. So that was good timing from that point of view.
“Obviously, just an incredible race. Those conditions were very tricky, but we made all the right decisions and rewarded ourselves coming from last, which was pretty crazy and special.
“The aftermath was also overwhelming – the feedback and responses we got, well over 700 messages. Took me a good week to work through it all, but obviously amazing and nice to feel and see all that.”
Nico Hulkenberg, Sauber
Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images via Getty Images
Hulkenberg’s team-mate Gabriel Bortoleto praised the 37-year-old driver’s decision-making during the British Grand Prix.
“Absolutely, I mean I was super happy for Nico and I’m still super happy for him, but obviously I would love to be me there and fighting for that, but, I mean, he did the decisions himself and it is what it is,” the rookie driver explained to the media in Belgium.
“I mean, if I had done the same decisions as he did, probably I would have been close to that or fighting for the podium myself, but the first decision I took in the race that was pitting for the slicks, it was the wrong decision.
“I saw some experienced guys ahead of me doing it, Charles [Leclerc], [George] Russell, and I thought, you know, they know the track very well, the conditions, I saw as well some dry patches on track and I said, ‘I’m going for it’, trying something, we are starting anyway in the back.
“Ended up that it didn’t pay off for any of these drivers, we all struggle a lot, I saw a lot of drivers going out, a lot of drivers crashing like I did.
“So I feel that was a very tricky race, I tried something different, didn’t pay off, I feel like those that did the basics very well done and executed a very good race, they managed to score points or even a podium like Nico did.”
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