2016 Formula 1 champion Nico Rosberg has heaped praise on Nico Hulkenberg for his "spectacular" reflexes that avoided a high-speed collision with his Audi team-mate Gabriel Bortoleto during a chaotic opening lap of the Dutch Grand Prix.
While the rain had stopped before the start, the track still had some wet patches. As Max Verstappen rounded the banked final corner, he hit a damp spot and crashed into the barriers. Bortoleto suffered a similar incident but managed to continue after a 360-degree spin.
As his team-mate spun in front of him, Hulkenberg found himself in a cloud of tyre smoke. When it dissipated, Bortoleto was right in front of him. Rosberg, speaking on the Sky Sports F1 broadcast, highlighted how the 39-year-old avoided a huge crash.
"It just shows how quick those drivers react. Hulkenberg went in; he knew more or less where Bortoleto was, where his trajectory was going," Rosberg explained. "He has a white wall, but then at the last moment sees him and bam, reacts and avoids [a crash]. It was a spectacular reaction from Hulkenberg, so I don't think it was just luck. I think there was also some skill there to avoid that big crash."
Hulkenberg went on to claim his best result of the season with eighth place and four valuable points for Audi. Bortoleto recovered from his spin to finish 13th. Describing the near-miss to Sky Sports Germany, Hulkenberg said: "Yeah, it was tricky and dicey. Naturally, I saw it all happen almost in slow motion at that speed. But Turn 14 was simply still completely wet and, on slicks, it's a bit of a thriller, of course. I saw him lose the car—like I said, slow motion and at speed. But then you don't know exactly whether he's going to slide up or slide down, what's going to happen."
"And it was clear to me: hey, I have to try to somehow get around this. On top of that, there was all the debris and the smoke from Max ahead. So it looked wild and spectacular. I slowed down and tried to wait as long as possible before deciding which way to go. A sheet of paper would have fitted between us, but not much more," he added.
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