Audi forced into 'fight-back mission' as odd incident wrecks midfield duel

Audi boss Allan McNish has described the "fight-back mission" the team was forced to launch in the United States following an odd issue on Nico Hulkenberg's car.

The German lined up 11th in Austin, but at the start, he bogged down after triggering anti-stall and fell into the lower midfield as rivals stormed past. 

Hulkenberg eventually regrouped, including a strong run of 29 laps on a set of soft tyres to finish where he had started in 11th, just 7.439s behind the Alpine of Pierre Gasly, who had started 10th, as the German missed out on a sixth points haul of the season.

However, given the pace of Hulkenberg throughout, to recover through the field to finish within striking distance of the Alpine, and that of team-mate Gabriel Bortoleto, who climbed from 21st after an engine penalty to 13th, McNish declared there was "a lot of positives" despite having to mount the comeback mission.

"The pace in the car looked pretty good, and if you look at us relative to the fastest Alpine or fastest Racing Bulls, then we were right on it," McNish told media, including RacingNews365.

"We were catching Gasly at the end as well, and the other thing which was very strong was our tyre capability - we could hold onto the tyre, especially on the soft for longer than we did, but we decided [otherwise] strategically.

"Then the other positive factor was that both cars could cut through the field and overtake and pull away, so there were a lot of positives.

"The negative was that one started on the last row, and the other had a problem with anti-stall at the start, and dropped to P15, so once we got into Turn 1, we were on a fight-back mission. 

"In terms of the operation, speed, racing, and everything else, it was all really good, and we got to pretty much the maximum they could have, unless somebody [retired], and nobody did."

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Hulkenberg's view

Recounting what happened with the botched start, Hulkenberg described the "odd feeling."

"It went into anti-stall, but not instantly," he began.

"It was quite late; I did a few metres, so I did a bit of the start and then it went into anti-stall, so it felt a bit odd.

"I need to go back and check exactly what happened or what was wrong, and obviously it put us on the back foot, and we picked off the easier [cars], and then that put us back where he started.

"But then I had quite a big gap to Pierre and Liam, and we were doing the same pace, so it was hard to recover that.

"When you are eight or 10 seconds behind, you do the same stuff, the gap will stay the same, but the gap was the result of that poor lap one."