P8 Hulkenberg was ‘determined to bounce back’ from Sprint ‘low blow’ in Austin

Nico Hulkenberg conceded that Sauber’s strong show of pace at the United States Grand Prix was “unexpected”.

Hulkenberg was the surprise story in Sprint Qualifying, as he positioned his Sauber in fourth place. But he was unable to translate this into points, after a collision with Oscar Piastri at Turn 1.

While Qualifying for the Grand Prix yielded a more familiar result, the German climbed to eighth place on Sunday, returning the shine to his weekend.

“It was a tough day on Saturday, kind of a low blow with that Turn 1 incident,” said Hulkenberg. “That was disappointing. So we were determined to bounce back in the race.”

Reflecting on two places gained through contact between Carlos Sainz and Kimi Antonelli, he added: “Obviously, we had a bit of help from Carlos to get a little bit more than 10th, but we had good race pace.

“I think it was a clean race, clean execution, so I’m happy after all.”

Asked how much personal encouragement he takes from an overall strong weekend, he said: “I think it’s always case-by-case, weekend-by-weekend case.

"It was a little bit unexpected to be so competitive here, so, to be honest, I’m not quite sure what to expect in Mexico. It’s a very different track, very different challenges there, so I don’t know.

“I don’t want to make any predictions. I’ll just let myself surprise myself with how it feels on Friday when we roll out.”

In the sister Sauber, Gabriel Bortoleto finished in 18th place after early contact with Alex Albon at the first corner on Lap 1.

“I was fighting with the car ahead and he touched my rear axle and he spun, so I don’t really know what happened there,” said the Brazilian.

“The race was quite boring," he added: “When you are starting at the back, it’s difficult to make your way up, especially when you are a bit stuck behind other cars and it’s quite difficult to overtake. There’s a lot of high speed sections here, and when you get to the straight line, you’ve already cooked your tyres.

“Unless you have a very big advantage – that I didn’t have today – it’s quite difficult to overtake.”