“Not sure you can call it unlucky but that’s the way it is, didn’t get any points today and think we had a good chance to do that but didn’t manage to,” was his succinct answer after the race, before he added that he needed to speak to the team to understand what had happened.
Some observers had initially believed the Dane to be suffering from a slow puncture, such was the frantic haste with which he was called in for his second stop – but Team Principal Ayao Komatsu clarified afterwards that it had been a strategic call.
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“[Hulkenberg] executed a very good one-stop strategy, and considering the situation he managed the tyres very well and communicated well. On Kevin’s side, it was almost the opposite as our baseline was a two-stop strategy and then there was some messy communication towards the end of the race.
“I feel that we should’ve scored points with both cars today, although Kevin may have struggled to hang on top P10, at least he would’ve had a chance.”
