TELEMETRY: How did Hulkenberg beat Verstappen with a stellar lap?

By Balazs Szabo on

Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg delivered a stellar lap to grab his best qualifying result of the year which saw him beat reigning champion Max Verstappen. F1Technical’s senior writer Balazs Szabo delivers his latest analysis.

Haas drivers Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen have shown eye-catching pace during the three practice sessions on a weekend when the American team still has a slim chance to turn over the situation in the constructors’ championship to take sixth place away from Alpine.

While the Dane driver failed to make it out of Q1, the German racer grabbed a sensational fourth in his last event for Haas before he joins Sauber in 2025.

However, the stewards confirmed after the qualifying session that Hulkenberg has been hit with a three-place grid penalty for failing to follow the race director’s instructions by overtaking two cars on the pit exit road.

The German set a 1m22.89s on his final push lap that saw him beat the newly-crowned four-time F1 champion Max Verstappen, who recorded a lap time of 1m22.94s on his penultimate push lap as he failed to improve on his final attempt.

The telemetry data provided by Formula Data Analysis shows that Hulkenberg and Verstappen were closely matched through the lap. On the small section to the first corner, Hulkenberg was fractionally quicker, but Verstappen gained a tenth through the first corner, indicating that his RB20 had higher overall downforce in the medium-speed corner.

While the Dutch driver was quick out of Turn 1, the German gained a bit on him on the full-throttle section afterwards. However, Verstappen gained two tenths on the entry to the medium-speed Turn 5, but Hulkenberg was quicker when exiting this particular corner. The two drivers were neck and neck on the long straight between Turn 5 and 6.

While Verstappen gained a significant amount of time again n the entry to the tricky complex of Turns 6, 7 and 8, Hulkenberg was quicker at the exit again. Interestingly, Verstappen gained half a tenth on the German on the long full-throttle section between Turn 8 and 9, which suggested a different energy deployment for Haas and Red Bull.

Turn 9 used to be a chicane, but the overhaul to the track in 2021 saw this turn become a long-radius medium-speed corner. The four-time world champion was very quick into this section, but Hulkenberg managed to exit it slightly quicker.

The pair were closely matched through the corner under the hotel complex, with Verstappen appearing to focus on corner entry in opposite to Hulkenberg.

Approaching the final corner, Hulkenberg was just under two tenths down on Verstappen, but the Dutchman made a crucial mistake when applying the throttle at the exit of Turn 16.

Although the telemetry shows that Verstappen only lifted for a moment which was enough to save the back of his RB20, the incident saw him lose two tenths which was enough for the Haas driver to qualify himself ahead of the 63-time F1 race winner.


previous

Leave your comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *