Nico Hulkenberg targets repeat of ‘promising’ Friday top-five performance ahead of Abu Dhabi Qualifying

Nico Hulkenberg has set out the target of repeating his “promising” Friday performance at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix during Saturday’s Qualifying, with the Kick Sauber driver ending both practice sessions in fifth place.

While an early crash last weekend in Qatar saw his recent points run come to an end, Hulkenberg looked on the pace as the opening day of track action got underway at the Yas Marina Circuit.

The German and team mate Gabriel Bortoleto placed in P5 and P7 respectively during Free Practice 1 – a session in which many other teams opted to run a rookie driver – while the second practice hour saw Hulkenberg repeat his result and Bortoleto go one better to take P6.

When asked afterwards if the car might have the same kind of pace for Qualifying on Saturday, Hulkenberg responded: “I hope so – that’s the target and the ambition, to hang onto it.

“Obviously many drivers didn’t get the FP1 session, so I’m sure they will have a bit more of a learning curve than us overnight, but things felt promising. I think the baseline performance and the balance of the car are in a good spot, and we had a clean, smooth day so that was positive.”

In terms of whether the squad’s strong performance had come as a surprise to them, the 38-year-old said: “Maybe slightly surprising – obviously there’s a bit more low-speed content, which I think is not so bad for our car, but you never know until you run.

“It’s nice to be quick on Friday, but it’s more important to have it tomorrow when it matters.”

Bortoleto similarly acknowledged that having good pace on a Friday does not necessarily mean it will continue throughout the rest of the weekend, but the Brazilian still voiced his confidence for the team’s prospects on Saturday.

“It’s just Free Practice,” he commented after the session. “I think there are a lot of things still to happen.

“Obviously it’s positive to be so competitive in FP1 and FP2, have a good pace, so I’m confident for tomorrow. But again, it’s just FP, there are a lot of people around that are also quick and super-close, so it’s not going to be easy but hopefully we put a good performance tomorrow.”

With Kick Sauber still in the fight for eighth place of the Teams’ Championship – the squad currently sitting in P9, only five points adrift of Haas – Bortoleto admitted that Qualifying could be crucial in terms of whether both he and Hulkenberg can claim some valuable points on Sunday.

“I hope both of the cars are in a good position tomorrow for Quali because it’s going to be very important for us [to have] a good starting position on Sunday, to try to score points and catch the cars ahead of us,” the 21-year-old conceded.