• European Grand Prix

Hulkenberg hit by KERS failure

Nico Hulkenberg and Paul di Resta scored 16 points for Force India © Sutton Images

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• Race:
• European Grand Prix

• Drivers:
• Paul di Resta
• |
• Nico Hülkenberg

• Teams:
• Racing Point

Nico Hulkenberg revealed that he finished in fifth place in Valencia despite having a KERS failure on his car.

Force India had shown impressive pace throughout practice and managed to convert that in to a double points finish in the European Grand Prix. Hulkenberg was the higher finisher in fifth place but he confirmed after the race that it had been a long afternoon due to the fact that he suffered a KERS failure which slowed his pace.

"P5 is a great achievement, I'm very happy about the result," Hulkenberg said. "A difficult race all in all and pretty long. It felt long in the car, also because my KERS failed and that made it all the bit more difficult, so I had to fight quite a bit with the car and some other people but came through it. A two-stop strategy; the last stint was very long, very tough and Michael and Webber were on fresh tyres in the end and there was no chance to hold them back. Obviously we did profit a lot from the people who dropped out in front of us otherwise we wouldn't have had that result but still, we did it and I'm happy about it."

Paul di Resta came home in seventh place on a one-stop strategy but he said his race was ruined by the safety car period which saw other drivers on very fresh tyres in the closing laps.

"I think our relative pace wasn't too bad," he said. "The mistake in qualifying probably cost us a little bit at the start but I think what we set out to achieve today, regardless, it was the safety car that blew it.

"There was absolutely no way I was going to be able to fight at the end, it was bad enough trying to keep the car on the track. At the end when you're in what you call 'red deg' you're three or four seconds off the pace and you're fighting for every downshift, every braking point and every kerb and that's the way it was, so you think the finish can't come soon enough."

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