Hulkenberg ‘frustrated and upset’ after Miami qualifying

Nico Hulkenberg was left frustrated that he wasn’t able to progress to the final phase of qualifying for the Miami Grand Prix.

The German will line up 12th for Round 5 of the 2023 season, while Haas team-mate Kevin Magnussen will start fourth.

“Much, much more in the car,” Hulkenberg bemoaned.

“Really, really frustrated and upset. My time in Q2 was on a used set from the first lap – we need to review what happened on the out lap and then how we got into that messy situation with Fernando [Alonso] and Esteban [Ocon].

“I ended up losing out big time for that. I kind of had to stop the car in the final corner to get a gap to them.

“As soon as you go slow here, there’s something with this tyre, and when you go slow, the tyre picks up a lot of s**t and dust.

“Then opening the lap, I just found myself with not having the grip that I needed; I was a second down in the first sector, aborted the lap, so much more in it – Q3 should have been very straightforward.”

The moment with Alonso and Ocon occurred as Hulkenberg headed down the back straight ahead of his final lap in Qualifying 2.

Tucked up behind Max Verstappen, he was building a gap in readiness for his timed effort, only to have the Aston Martin and Alpine drivers ambush him.

“They came with so much overspeed from the back,” Hulkenberg explained.

“With these mirrors, they’re better, they’re bigger, but you still see the cars so late, and when they have a closing speed of 100 kph there’s not so much you can do anymore.

“Obviously, you can block them in, like in a race, [but] that would be a massive shunt.”

While frustrated with his own session, Hulkenberg was pleased to see Magnussen well up on the grid.

“He’s done a good job weekend,” he said.

“He been also confident and converted, so fair play to him. Good job.”