F1 | Renault, Nico Hulkenberg: “We will have a difficult life tomorrow, but I'm optimistic”

The qualifying session for the Brazilian Grand Prix was, unfortunately, interrupted at the end of Q2 for Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Hulkenberg.

The two drivers of the Enstone team only managed to place in twelfth and fourteenth position respectively, and will be separated only by Antonio Giovinazzi on the grid. The times set on the Interlagos circuit were very close indeed and the two failed to make the cut by a few hundredths of a second.

"The mid-table times were really concentrated, we couldn't find enough rhythm – confirmed Hulkenberg, fourteenth at the start – we were really just a few hundredths of a second away from getting into Q3. The lap is really short, my second attempt in Q2 was quite clean, but we always lacked the extra pace, which would have easily gotten us through the cutoff. This makes life difficult for us for tomorrow, but I'm optimistic, considering that our race pace has been good in the last few races. Starting from the back of the grid, behind the exhausts of our opponents, will be tough, but we will fight and give everything".

Daniel Ricciardo is also not very satisfied and will instead start behind Lando Norris.

"The mid-table times were all very close this weekend, and qualifying was no exception. The lap is very short, with few corners, so everything has to be perfect. We weren't, but I like these battles over the flying lap, especially if it's about thousandths of a second. I struggled a bit in the second attempt in Q2, the tires overheated a bit. We would have liked to get into Q3, but all is not lost, I'm excited for the race. We have free choice of tires at the start and I think there will be some good opportunities ahead of us to gain positions and even some points".