Hulkenberg was fast throughout the Spanish GP weekend, qualifying ninth and starting eighth after gaining a spot from a penalty for Pierre Gasly.
He ran in the same position in the early laps of the race but had to pit and abandon his soft tyres after just eight laps.
That led him into a three-stop strategy that saw him in 15th place at the flag after running mediums, hards and mediums for the remainder of the race.
The only other driver to pit three times was his own team-mate Kevin Magnussen, who suffered similar issues.
Hulkenberg acknowledged that good one-lap performance was welcome the team has to get its car working more effectively in races.
"I'd rather have it the other way around,” he said when asked by Autosport about the qualifying pace. ”But that's the trend and the characteristic we see so far this year, and we need to try and balance it more between Saturday and Sunday.
“Because obviously whilst it's nice to bang out a nice quali it always then raises expectations, and you get a downer on Sunday which is not so easy to cope with and to explain to people all the time. So some work for the longer-term future, I think."
Hulkenberg admitted that the three stops was not the team’s preferred strategy in Barcelona.
"It was an option, but it was the bail-out option, kind of!” he said. “I just hit really high deg all race long, it started right after the start. I was eaten up alive pretty much, just instantly ran into heavy graining on front and rear and was just going backwards.
Source: Autosport