For Nico Hulkenberg, the chequered flag in Abu Dhabi brought relief as his Formula 1 career comes to an end, at least for now.
The German ran as high as fourth for a while at Yas Marina, in the laps when DRS was disabled, but ultimately fell behind the two-stoppers in the closing laps to finish 12th.
While his exit from the grid after 10 years was already confirmed ahead of the season finale, he admitted the speculation since August had taken a toll.
“I’m kind of relieved that it’s all over,” he told Sky Sports.
“When everyone talks about it you keep getting those questions and comment it’s obviously a little bit tense, a strange feeling, but happy that I’ve done a good race, thrown everything at it when I could.
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“It was a shame not to get that point in the end, but the one-stop was hard to pull off, and at the end, my tyres were just degrading too much and I couldn’t hang on to it.
“But still I thought it was a positive race where the pace was good and we were in the fight, but unfortunately some of the others had an advantage on strategy, and always driving in traffic is really hard.
“A worthy final race for me, happy, relieved to cross the line with good feelings.
“Saying thank you to the team, three years over, good, not fantastic years, but still it was cool and fun at times. We had highs and lows together, but definitely I have to say thank you to them.”
Before the race, Renault paid tribute to Hulkenberg by donning blonde wigs for the team photo and releasing words of praise for his contribution since 2017.
“It is clear that Nico has been instrumental in our progress through F1,” team boss Cyril Abiteboul said.
“We needed a driver who had the experience and maturity to help us take the next step and we couldn’t have asked any more of him.
“It wasn’t an easy decision [to replace him] as he has many strong attributes: he’s a great driver, always motivated and looking and pushing for more, which has, in turn, spurred us on.
“We wish him every luck for the future and sincerely thank him for his huge contribution to Renault F1 Team over the past three years.”
