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Hulkenberg expects progress in Monaco

Nico Hulkenberg secured his second top ten finish of the season in Barcelona © Sutton Images

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• Race:
• Monaco Grand Prix

• Drivers:
• Nico Hülkenberg

• Teams:
• Racing Point

Nico Hulkenberg expects to be even more competitive in Monaco this weekend than he was in the Spanish Grand Prix.

Hulkenberg scored points for only the second time this season when he finished tenth in Barcelona, impressively holding off Mark Webber in the closing stages of the race. Having admitted that the updated Force India was improved in Spain, Hulkenberg is expecting the team to make another step forward in Monaco as it fine-tunes the car.

"I think we have taken a good step forward with the developments we made for Spain and they will continue to help us in Monaco," Hulkenberg said. "We still have work to do to understand and fine-tune them along with the set-up, so that is something the team is working on. When you see how close the teams around us are it can really make a difference to find even the smallest gain."

Team principal Vijay Mallya agreed that Force India is moving forward, but warned that the unpredictability of Monaco would make it a tough weekend.

"I would love to see us performing well this weekend and challenging for points once again," Mallya said. "We've certainly made progress with the car lately, but the whole grid remains very closely matched. Just a couple of tenths can separate ten positions on the grid so nobody can afford to take anything for granted. We also know that Monaco can be an unpredictable race so anything is possible. Our focus will be on making sure we qualify well to get track position for Sunday."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.