Hülkenberg’s Progress
Ninth place in the previous Hungarian GP had represented the best seasonal result for Nico Hülkenberg, who managed to set a new personal ‘record’ at Zandvoort. The German Audi driver, protagonist of a good weekend on the Dutch circuit, actually crossed the finish line in eighth position, achieving it after an incident that could have compromised his race and that of the entire team.
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The Accident Avoided by a Hair
During the first lap, in fact, the race was interrupted due to the violent impact against the barriers of Max Verstappen, with Gabriel Bortoleto in turn spinning. The Brazilian managed to keep control of the car, but right behind him came Hülkenberg, unable to see his teammate because of the cloud of smoke created by the latter. It was here that the German, in a mix of reflexes and luck, avoided the collision by a hair: “It was a very nice race, even if the end of the first lap was quite scary – he explained – I saw what was happening in front of me and reacted instinctively, so I was relieved to have avoided the accident. From there on, we had a clean race, a good strategy and some nice battles along the way. It’s really a great feeling to come home with points today. They are important for us in the championship and give a boost to the whole team, also confirming that the work we are doing is taking us in the right direction. It wasn’t the easiest weekend, so it’s even better to come home with a good result and valuable points today.”
Bortoleto spinning, Hulkenberg approaching at speed 😱
How did the two Audis avoid crashing into each other? 🫣#F1 #DutchGP pic.twitter.com/Yei6hdMpT5
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— Formula 1 (@F1) August 23, 2026
Valuable points for Audi, which takes advantage of Haas’s double retirement to get closer to the American team in the overall standings, now leading by only 5 points. The gap would obviously have been shorter if Bortoleto had finished in the points zone, not at all satisfied with the race and the 13th place: “It was a somewhat disappointing end to the weekend for us. We had some problems at the start that unfortunately didn’t allow us to maximize our grid position; moreover, when I saw the smoke from Verstappen’s car, I made a small steering correction and lost control of the car – luckily I managed not to hit the wall. The team did a fantastic job trying to put me in the best possible position to recover positions, so it’s a shame we didn’t get the result we wanted, although it was nice to see Nico bring home more points today. Our pace was good, I was satisfied with the feelings I had with the car until yesterday, so we will take these positive aspects and focus on Monza in two weeks.”
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