Nico Hulkenberg declared himself “quite pleased” with his laps after a very late call-up for the Eifel Grand Prix.
The German is stepping in at Racing Point for the third time in 2020, replacing Lance Stroll after the Canadian became unwell on Saturday.
But unlike at Silverstone, where Hulkenberg at least got the whole weekend to prepare, this time his first taste of the RP20 came in Q1.
“It was even wilder and crazier than last time,” he told Sky Sports. “I was in Cologne, which is kind of an hour from here. I was due to come here this afternoon anyway, and I was going to do some TV stuff for RTL tomorrow.
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“I was sat with a friend having a coffee at 11am when I see that Otmar [Szafnauer] rings me and says, ‘Hulkenberg hurry, we need you here.’ so I stepped in the car and came here.
“And the rest is history, we saw what happened now. Obviously it’s the 2.0 return, in a moment of a heartbeat.”
Although the rest of the grid had only had an hour of practice after Friday was fogged out, Hulkenberg’s task was far greater, so it was not a big surprise when he was slowest overall, albeit just two-tenths off Kimi Raikkonen.
“It felt quite different again to Silverstone obviously,” he said of this return.
“Completely different circuit, the car has moved on too, there’s a couple of technical bits that are very different and give the driver a very different sensation.
“So I had to kind of adjust around that a bit, and just find my feet again.
“Obviously, in four laps, that’s not so easy, but all-in-all, even though we’re last, I’m quite pleased with the laps that we’ve produced just now.
“It still means that tomorrow is gonna be very difficult, and a hell of a challenge but we’ll do what we can.
“Obviously I have the experience, the four laps in the pocket now. Those will sink in, and tomorrow we’ll just go racing and see what we get.”
