Nico Hulkenberg wanted to 'eat the steering wheel' as perfect gamble ruined

Nico Hulkenberg has described how he was left "eating my steering wheel" after his Bahrain GP gamble was ruined by the safety car. 

As conditions improved in the Sepang race, drivers on the intermediate tyres were faced with the crossover point of when to switch over to the slick, dry tyres, with Hulkenberg pulling the trigger at the end of his eighth lap. 

He emerged from the pits in 14th place, and ahead of those who had toughed the conditions out on slicks, with Lando Norris at the head of this particular train of cars.

However, Hulkenberg's gamble was then ruined by the safety car being deployed on Lap 9 for Valtteri Bottas's beached Cadillac, which then allowed those ahead on the intermediates to pit and emerge ahead of the Audi, which took the restart in 13th. 

Reflecting after his 11th place finish, Hulkenberg described how he was initially feeling "like a hero" at the decision to pit. 

"I was eating my steering wheel in that moment; it seriously sucked because I was feeling brave and like a hero in that moment," Hulkenberg told media, including RacingNews365. 

"I made it work quite well; I made it into Turn 6, Turn 7 when the safety car came out, and it was going quite well until that moment.

"So I think we could have undercut a few people there, but unfortunately, the safety car had other plans."

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Hulkenberg's damage limitation

Ultimately, Hulkenberg finished in 11th place for the fourth time this season, just missing out on a points finish after late battles with Norris and the Racing Bulls machine of Arvid Lindblad.

The German had been one of the drivers to take the first standing start on the slick tyres before quickly abandoning them for intermediates before the failed safety car gamble. 

"It was damage limitation, yeah, it was too ambitious to go on slicks, but this track has a history of drying up quickly, but I think the sun was missing a bit for that, so it took quite long," he said.

"But we realised and repaired the damage quite quickly, and picked up everyone on slicks within a lap or two, so it didn't cost that much; it was kind of a freebie. 

"Then there was a lot of good racing, a lot of good fighting, but I don't know if the [Albon] safety car was so advantageous for us at the end.

"We didn't have enough speed to defend the position, and we were only in that position in the first place because George [Russell] and Lando [Norris had issues, so points were a long shot."