Nico Hulkenberg has warned Haas that their weakness in Formula 1 races could bite them in the Canadian Grand Prix - despite his standout Qualifying. In wet conditions, Hulkenberg posted the second fastest time and was set to line up on the front row alongside pole-sitter Max Verstappen, but was summoned to the see the stewards over a red flag infringement after Oscar Piastri crashed in Q3. It was found that Hulkenberg exceeded the delta time he was meant to follow, but did so simply because of when the red flag was deployed, which had him 1.5s above the time. He followed the time for the rest of his in-lap, but as the breach was committed, the stewards were required to penalise him - although they did issue a lighter sanction because of the mitigating circumstances. Fifth still represents the German's best grid spot of the season - but he has warned the team that their long-standing problems with race pace could bite - especially with both Ferraris and the Red Bull of Sergio Perez behind.
Hulkenberg's warning
"We can take it, enjoy it, take that moment with us," Hulkenberg told media including RacingNews365, before the penalty was handed out. "Obviously we have to prepare for the race, and we've got to be realistic [in our expectations.] "Recently our race pace hasn't been the strongest point from us; actually it was more always Qualifying than the race [where we were strong]. "On top of that, Friday was a difficult day [with the engine failure in practice], it was compromised and short running for everyone, but even more so for myself. "So there's a lot of challenges to overcome [in the race] and it is a big job, but at least we start from a good position . "For sure, there is going to be a lot of heat from [behind], there's a lot of faster cars that will come through, but our focus is just to maximise the race and the potential [we have]. "It's definitely nice to have a strong Qualifying result, it was challenging conditions, but I feel like we stayed on top of the situation, had good communication throughout and [had] clean laps. "It is a pity and a shame not to be starting on the front-row, but we have to face the consequences with that. "It doesn't really change anything [for the race], the approach is the same and it won't impact or harm the outcome. "We'll prepare as usual and race hard."
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