German GP, ​​Nico Hulkenberg: “Seventh position was the best possible result for us today, so it's nice to get the most out of it and bring home some important points.”

La Force India confirmed the expectations of the day before, bringing both cars to the points, with Nico Hulkenberg who was first of the “others” behind the top teams with his seventh place and Sergio Perez who managed to get tenth position (the last one that awards points) in the final laps at the expense of Fernando Alonso.

Nico Hulkenberg – seventh: “Seventh position was the best possible result for us today, so it's nice to get the maximum and take home some important points. The team did a great job with the strategy, at the beginning we started the race thinking that a two-stop strategy was possible, but then we decided to change and go with a three-stop strategy. It was definitely the right route to take and allowed me to take seventh position from Bottas in the final laps. Tire degradation was very high so the race was mainly focused on tire management. For me it was also a solo race as my main opponent was Bottas and we ran on different strategies. So I'm very happy and I think the team is too. We can't wait to return from the summer break to continue with these splendid results.”

Sergio Perez – tenth: “I can say it was the worst start of my career. I had my tires spin and ended up in sixteenth position – so I immediately had to fight against the others to recover. The team then had to think about the strategy again to put me in a competitive position. The degradation was very high, especially while following other cars, and I fought for a good part of the race with Fernando [Alonso]. In the final laps I had run out of tires and I knew that Fernando was also in a similar situation, so when I saw the opportunity to overtake him I knew I had to seize it. Honestly after the first corner I didn't think we would be able to score points, but we did. Now we're going on holiday, proud of the work we've done for this first half of the season. I'm confident that we still have some great days ahead of us in the next nine races, but now it's important to get some rest.”

Robert Fernley – deputy team principal: “It's satisfying to earn another five points in the fight for fourth place in the constructors' championship, and it's also nice to finish the first half of the season with a double points finish. If we look at the race there wasn't much else we could hope for and the team did a great strategic job to allow Nico to battle with Bottas. Sergio's race became a recovery race after the bad start, and considering the whole, the team did well in allowing him to obtain the tenth final position. We expect a very close second half of the season, but we know we can be stronger in the races after the summer break.”
Stefano Rifici (@SedyBenoitPeace)