A “flustered” Nico Hulkenberg’s two late errors boosted rookie Formula 1 drivers Franco Colapinto and Oliver Bearman, plus Mercedes racer Lewis Hamilton, in unseen incidents at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix’s close.
By keeping his pace high and medium tyres alive in the first stint on Sunday, Hulkenberg was eventually given a team order to move past temporary team-mate Bearman ahead, while his impressive tyre management on the hards later in the race meant he had split the Williams pair that had started ahead and was on for 10th place.
But on lap 48, Hulkenberg clipped the Turn 15 approach wall and, after feeling he had sustained a puncture Haas could not see in its data, as well as some confusion about his engine mode at this stage, the overall momentum loss meant Colapinto slipped his Williams back ahead Turn 3 on the next tour.
At the same spot in the immediate aftermath of the Perez/Sainz crash the next time by, Hulkenberg failed to react in time to a green flag marker board just past the shunt scene and was jumped by Hamilton and Bearman.
Nico Hulkenberg, Haas VF-24
Photo by: Andrew Ferraro / Motorsport Images
The wall strike incident cost Haas an eventual eighth place given what happened between Perez and Sainz and the spots in the top 10 they relinquished, although Bearman was able to secure the final point in his pass on Hulkenberg.
Of this moment, Komatsu told Autosport/Motorsport.com that “after [the] yellow, [Hulkenberg] hit something and he was flustered and the yellow finishes before Turn 3.
“He was like, ‘this should be safety car’, just completely flustered and then Hamilton and Ollie just went through.”
When asked if Haas was surprised the race officials took as long as they did to activate a virtual safety car, or even if it had thought the race would be stopped, Komatsu replied: “I thought it was going to be red.
“But to be honest it’s kind of the same mistake as Nico made. I thought, ‘This should be red’. It’s like, ‘Yes, it should be but whatever I think it should be it doesn’t matter, we’ve just got to fucking focus on what’s in front of us’.
“Nico is thinking that it should be a safety car. Yes, fine, but just focusing right now [was the better thing to do].”
Speaking to media crews afterwards, Hulkenberg alluded to how “everything that can go wrong, went wrong” in these incidents “and 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 “was actually going better than expected” as he “managed to find some rhythm and pace, which I’m very happy and pleased about” – given Bearman had beaten him by 0.223s and three spots in Baku qualifying.
“With the accident at the end I got caught off guard,” Hulkenberg explained. “For me, it was a straight safety car or even a red flag as there was some real carnage down the straight.
“It was instead then a green flag, and I lost positions there and lost the result unfortunately.
“The whole track was covered in debris, and I ran over a massive piece, which I couldn’t see because of a car in front of me.
“It was a pretty crazy two last laps, but unfortunately not in our favour.”
