Audi F1 driver Nico Hulkenberg has described his "scary" near-miss with team-mate Gabriel Bortoleto as a mix of luck and judgement, avoiding a potentially disastrous collision at the start of the Dutch Grand Prix.
With the Zandvoort circuit still damp from a pre-race shower but dry enough for slicks, Max Verstappen suffered a heavy crash at the end of lap one in the final banked corner. In the chaos, Bortoleto went into a 360-degree spin, leaving his car stationary in the middle of the track.
As oncoming traffic scrambled to take avoiding action, Hulkenberg somehow managed to swerve around the left-hand side of his team-mate's car. "It was scary, sketchy," said a relieved Hulkenberg. "The whole track was very dry, just that corner stayed much wetter and caught people out. I was waiting, hesitating until the last moment. A good portion of luck not to hit each other there, but that was too close for comfort."
From the pitwall, racing director Allan McNish watched the incident unfold on both onboard cameras simultaneously. "I live every second with them, which is why I'm turning grey very quickly at times," he joked. "When I first saw Gabriel spinning and then Nico coming out the other side of it, I didn't quite realise that he had gone into the smoke. So, it was a bit too much Days of Thunder for my heart..."
Analysing the incident as a former racer, McNish praised the instinct and skill shown by both drivers. "When something's happening ahead of you, there is a mental process, but there's also an instinct. It's instinctive knowing where to go and what to do. Some people have got it and some people don't. And then after that, there's an element of judgement. How far do you go? In which direction? I was very impressed with what Gabi was able to do to keep it in the middle of the circuit and for it not to spoon up into the wall."
Hulkenberg went on to finish eighth, scoring four points and marking Audi's fourth consecutive points-scoring weekend. Bortoleto, meanwhile, finished a distant 13th. The result strengthens Audi's position in the constructors' championship, though consistency remains a work in progress.
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