(Motorsport-Total.com) – At the Hungarian Grand Prix, Audi scored World Championship points for the third time in a row. For the first time, it was Nico Hülkenberg who secured important points for the team with the four rings with his ninth place. Bortoleto finished eleventh, missing out on points by less than a second.
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The 38-year-old’s first top-10 result had already become apparent in qualifying. While Bortoleto had to retire in Q2, Hülkenberg qualified in tenth place. Only the performance of the Racing Bulls had somewhat annoyed the more experienced Audi driver after qualifying.
At the start, the situation remained unchanged for both drivers. While Hülkenberg drove behind the two Racing Bulls, Bortoleto struggled with Esteban Ocon’s Haas. The problem? The Audi driver had started the race on soft tires and was unable to exploit the advantage of his tires in traffic.
“I was stuck behind Ocon for a long time,” Bortoleto explained after the race. “After I managed to get rid of him, I quickly caught up with Nico and the two Racing Bulls.”
Bortoleto opted for a one-stop strategy, while Hülkenberg pitted twice for tire changes. Although the rookie from last year was temporarily ahead of his more experienced teammate, he could no longer defend himself on his older tires towards the end of the race. Consequently, Liam Lawson also passed Bortoleto on his set of soft tires.
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“Honestly, that was a good strategy we tried today,” he said after the race. “If I had lost less time at the beginning, I could have benefited from it.”
In contrast, Hülkenberg managed to overtake not only his teammate but also Arvid Lindblad’s Racing Bull shortly before the end. “It feels great to finally score the first points of the season,” emphasized the 38-year-old after the race.
“We got everything out of qualifying yesterday and backed that up with a strong race today. Everyone did a very good job this weekend, and it’s really rewarding to go into the summer break with points on the board.”
Hülkenberg had eagerly wished for exactly that beforehand. It was the execution on the weekend, especially in qualifying, that had cost him points several times this season.
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