Nico Hulkenberg confirmed he had no repercussions from his first-lap barrel roll at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
The German was battling with Romain Grosjean’s Haas into the Turn 8/9 chicane and would make wheel-on-wheel contact pitching his Renault into the air and finishing upside down against the barrier.
Though there was a brief scare with fire, Hulkenberg played down the scary incident.
“Yeah, all fine,” he assured in the paddock. “Just the normal disappointment that you have when you are out on Lap 1 of the race.
“It is obviously not what I was looking for, there is such a long build-up and everybody is putting in the hard work over the weekend and then to be out on Lap 1 like this, and with a lot of damage to the car as well, it just feels bad.”
A scary start to the final race of the season for @HulkHulkenberg ?
He walked away unscathed from his big collision with Romain Grosjean#AbuDhabiGP ?? #F1 pic.twitter.com/bAVm0LRgtQ
— Formula 1 (@F1) November 25, 2018
The stewards soon investigated before ruling it a racing incident and Hulkenberg agreed with the assessment.
“Very disappointing but yeah, I think we have to put it down as a racing incident,” he explained.
“[I was] racing Romain into Turn 8. We both locked up and I went really wide. He went even wider so I thought he ran off the track and I had Turn 9 to myself. That is why I took the apex.
“But obviously he was still there and our wheels made contact and the rest we have seen. A couple of flips which look spectacular but nothing really dramatic.”
It’s the first time a driver has faced the situation of trying to escape a car while upside down with the Halo in place and concerns over the length of time it required were justified as his car had to be put back on its wheels first before Hulkenberg could climb out.
“I don’t know really as to whether the Halo blocked me [getting out] or not,” he admitted. “To the right, I had the barrier anyway and then there was a very small gap.
“When you are upside down it is not so easy to find all the buttons and all the things because everything feels very different.
“It was also the first time in the car to end up on the roof. I was just sitting tight, waiting for the marshals, and they reacted very quickly and obviously got me out.”