'Underdog' Nico Hulkenberg hailed after Lewis Hamilton confrontation

Nico Hulkenberg deserved his "show of respect" from the Silverstone crowd after fending off "home hero" Lewis Hamilton en route to finally ending his podium drought in Sunday's British Grand Prix.

In his 239th race in F1, Hulkenberg finally finished on the podium for the first time, claiming third place behind McLaren duo Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri at the end of a rain-lashed, chaotic race.

For a while, however, it appeared as if Stake driver Hulkenberg would be swallowed up and denied his moment in the spotlight by a chasing Hamilton in his Ferrari after both had despatched Aston Martin's Lance Stroll on lap 35 of the 52-lap race.

Hamilton managed to get within a second of Hulkenberg at various stages over the following laps, but was never close enough to make a move, even after the duo had switched from intermediate to slick tyres, the former with 10 laps remaining, followed by the latter a lap later.

Allan McNish, a three-time Le Mans winner who serves as a senior consultant on Audi's F1 project, has conceded to being nervous as the laps ticked by.

Speaking to RacingNews365, McNish said: "A Ferrari with Lewis Hamilton behind you at the British Grand Prix, you think, 'Crikey! A matter of time'. You know it's coming.

"But I think there was enough of a delta, and actually, at the end of that run on the inters, Nico was a little bit quicker. He just eked out the gap. He never made a mistake to allow Lewis to have a sniff, to have an overtake. He was quick at the right times.

"And then the strategy decision of when to stop, which was one lap later, was absolutely right because it gave him extra performance on the outlap when it [the circuit] was just that little bit drier.

"And we saw how tricky it was just beforehand, when people were going out of the pits on the slick tyre."

At the chequered flag, McNish feels the knowledgeable Silverstone crowd rightly acclaimed Hulkenberg, despite being deprived of seeing Hamilton not on the podium for the first time in 13 grands prix.

"They were appreciating that this was the underdog, and the Brits love an underdog," said McNish.

"We do like an underdog fighting back, and this was one, and with Lewis Hamilton, their home hero, sitting right behind him, I thought it was definitely a show of respect."

Hulkenberg in Mansell comparison

Whilst a defining moment in Hulkenberg's career, McNish does not feel it will be a turning point for the 37-year-old German

"I don't know with Nico whether it will be like Nigel Mansell," said McNish. "You remember Nigel got his first victory, and off he went, and then he was just winning after that.

"I don't know if it'll be like that for Nico because it could have happened with so many other opportunities.

"He's capable of doing much, much more than just third place. That I am 100 per cent sure. I watched him when he was a kid coming through, and you don't suddenly turn slow. And he's not turned slow. He's always been quick.

"If you look at his quali, he's always been right there. It's just the cards didn't fall for him in the way that they maybe should have done.

"I'm not sure if it's like a monkey off his back that he'll drive quicker, or he'll drive more freely, because I think he's doing it anyway. It just needed the right situation for it to happen, and that was Silverstone at the weekend."