German GP qualifying, Nico Hulkenberg: “I'm very happy to have qualified seventh for my home race”

Amazing qualifying session for Force India, which placed both cars in the top 10, with Nico Hulkenberg (home driver here) who finished in seventh place and Sergio Perez to the ninth. The German, however, will start eighth following a penalty, in fact it seems that the team has mounted the set of tires that had to be returned to the Pirelli.

Nico Hulkenberg – seventh: “I'm very happy to have qualified seventh for my home race – my time is the best after the top three teams so it's a great result for me and the team. Our goal was to maximize our potential and I think we succeeded. Almost all my laps in the session were clean and Q3 was the best. For tomorrow we can expect a tough fight for points, but we are in a good starting position and were strong in all sessions. In the long runs the pace is equally competitive, so we have the chance to get a great result. Tomorrow we think there might be a bit of rain during the race, but honestly if it were to arrive I wouldn't care too much, let's wait and see what happens."

Sergio Perez – ninth: “It was fun and very intense, I fought with Nico and the two Williams for all qualifying and in the end the result was what we expected. It was crucial to go through Q1 with only one set of tires as some teams had used two, this gave us a small advantage for Q2 and subsequently earned us the top 10. On my last lap in Q3 I struggled a bit in the right turns; I think I got some debris on my front wing and that cost me some time, but it's something we'll analyze with the team. In the end it was a very tough battle and a couple of tenths made the difference. Tomorrow will be interesting. We will start with the supersofts and we need to work a lot to make the strategy and get some important points.”

Robert Fernley – deputy team principal: “Today's qualifying is a great result for both sides of our garage and puts us in a strong position for tomorrow's race. The car showed good speed right from the start of free practice and it was satisfying to see its potential fully expressed. In Q3 it was a very tough fight with the Williams with Nico managing to beat Bottas. There are a couple of strategies that we will analyze tonight, but we are well placed to get the most out of the race. Tomorrow should be an interesting and exciting race.”

Stefano Rifici (@SedyBenoitPeace)