Japanese Grand Prix – Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg qualified in P15 for the race at Suzuka, having had a mechanical issue in Q2.
Nico Hulkenberg qualified in P15 for the race at Suzuka on Sunday morning. Having successfully made it through Q1, Hulkenberg was preparing for his first flying lap in Q2 when he radioed in to say that his car felt strange.
He said that he felt ‘something wrong with the power steering and the gearshifts’. He was told to keep the car in his current gear and return to the pits. This meant he had to drive around the circuit, including the hairpin, in 7th gear as he made his way back to his garage.
He didn’t manage to get back out in time to do a laptime and thus was eliminated from Q2. Renault explained afterwards that he had suffered a hydraulic pressure issue that couldn’t be fixed quickly enough to save their qualifying, and they are now working on repairing it before the race.
📻 "I think I've lost power steering. Something is a bit funny"
He is told to not change gear and return to the pits#JapaneseGP 🇯🇵 #F1 pic.twitter.com/Ynu9GCF3sz
— Formula 1 (@F1) October 13, 2019
“It was a shame not to put a lap in on new tyres in Q2.” explained Hulkenberg. “It looks like we had a loss of hydraulic pressure and we had to abandon our final run, even if getting into Q3 was looking challenging. We’ll see what we can do from fifteenth on the grid, we’ll keep our heads down and get on with it.”
The team say they have identified the source of the hydraulic leak and are working on replacing the parts in order to get the car ready for the race.
Teammate Daniel Ricciardo will start the race from P16, having lamented a lack of pace in Q1. Renault are running a new front wing this weekend but, with third practice cancelled on Saturday, there has been a slight lack of time to attune their new parts on time for qualifying.
