After losing his full-time F1 drive with Renault at the end of 2019, Nico Hulkenberg had to make do with a handful of super-sub outings for Racing Point/Aston Martin until Haas came knocking.
In qualifying, Hulkenberg immediately exercised his one-lap superiority over team-mate Kevin Magnussen and got as far as Q3 first time out in Bahrain. He repeated that in Australia, securing his season-best grand prix finish of seventh from 10th on the grid.
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Most of the German’s highlights were produced in qualifying because the limited Haas often fell back in the races; his best performance was second place in a wet-dry Canadian GP qualifying before receiving a grid penalty.
“I’ve been pretty impressed. We took him for one reason, because we know he can drive a race car.
“The doubt was after three years as not a full-time driver, how long does it take him to catch up? It didn’t take him any time because he was there from day one.
Source: Autosport