Hülkenberg receives heavy penalty for Italian GP

Starting only 17th after a change of engine, Nico Hulkenberg saw his race end in the first meters by completely missing his braking and hitting the McLaren MCL33 Fernando Alonso. The Asturian found himself propelled into the air and took the Sauber C37 from Charles Leclerc in its wake.

If the injured drivers emerged unscathed, the images were still impressive as often at the start of the Belgian GP.

“I don’t know what he thought he was doing. He couldn't even have made the turn at the speed he was going. It was a bit reminiscent of the 2012 accident with Grosjean », commented the double world champion.

For his part, Nico Hülkenberg admitted having made an error of judgment which could have had serious consequences given the state of the Halo on the car by Charles Leclerc.

“I crashed into Fernando’s car. I braked too late, it was an error of judgment on my part. I was surprised by the low level of grip at the start”, explained the winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2015 at the microphone of Canal+.

The director of Renault Sports racing Cyril Abiteboul tried to excuse his driver who was called to the marshals to explain himself and who could receive a penalty. The sanction finally fell with a ten-place penalty inflicted on the German on the grid of the Italian GP contested next weekend.

“He missed his braking point because he is not used to starting from that far. The perspectives are different », commented the Frenchman on the private channel.

Discover the analysis of the Belgian GP carried out by our special correspondents in issue 2180 of AUTOhebdo, available from Monday evening in digital version on all platforms, and from this Wednesday on newsstands.