COOPER: Hulkenberg Pole Run Left Paddock Smiling

Formula 1

COOPER: Hulkenberg Pole Run Left Paddock Smiling

Nico Hulkenberg was probably 999-1 to take pole for the Formula One Brazilian Grand Prix...

Adam Cooper | http://www.speedtv.com | Posted November 07, 2010 Sao Paulo (BRA)

Nico Hulkenberg, Williams FW32 Cosworth celebrates claiming pole position ahead of Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull Racing RB6 Renault and Mark Webber, Red Bull Racing RB6 Renault. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

I heard somewhere tonight that Nico Hulkenberg was 999-1 to take pole for the Brazilian GP, and if anyone had a bet at those odds, they probably deserved to win some cash!

Today’s outcome left almost everyone in the paddock with a smile on their face, with the possible exception of the folk at Force India. Not only will Adrian Sutil start from 23rd after his five-place penalty was added, but any kind of result for Williams on Sunday will rob the team of sixth place in the championship. And with Hulkenberg on pole and Rubens Barrichello sixth the odds on Williams scoring a few points certainly won’t be 999-1.

This was a feel good result, not least because Hulkenberg’s job has been under threat due to the imminent arrival of Pastor Maldonado and his Venezuelan funding for 2011. Williams is also a popular team, and it deserves a break after so many barren seasons. It was also a good result for Cosworth, and showed that the customer engine has some potential.

Hulkenberg did a brilliant job, and the great thing was that it was no fluke, in that he wasn’t the only guy to make a tyre call that happened to pay off. Everyone was charging around on slicks and everyone had the same opportunity. He just happened to the last one in the line. But that wasn’t the crucial thing. He set a pole with his first lap, maintained it with his second, and then – with pole already won as everyone else had crossed the line – he went even faster with his third lap.

VIDEO: Brazilian GP Qualifying Nico Hulkenberg reacts to his pole run in Brazil. (Image: SPEED)

It was a brilliant performance by a guy who had not driven at Interlagos prior to this weekend. And he beat a team mate who has done thousands of laps here and who has a history of grabbing poles in similar changing conditions.

Lined up behind him on the grid are four of the five title contenders. Jenson Button may have got stuck in Q2, but the others all had relatively clean sessions with no disastrous strategy calls or traffic disasters. They simply didn’t get the perfect lap and got beaten by a guy who had got his act together.

It just reinforced the fact that Hulkenberg is a potential star, and you only need to take a look at his resume to realise that. EuroSeries F3 Champion, winner of A1 GP for Germany, GP2 Champion... It’s a stellar record that’s at least as good as Lewis Hamilton’s. There’s a good reason why Michael Schumacher’s manager Willi Weber saw Hulkenberg as a guy who could step into the seven-time champion’s shoes.
He came into F1 this year with very little testing behind him and no chance to do any during the season, and with a car that wasn’t very good at the start of the year. In the circumstances it took a while for him to find his feet, and an on-form Rubens made his life even harder. But recently he’s regularly been in the top 10. At Monza he held off Mark Webber for quite a while, even if he cut the odd chicane in his efforts to stay ahead. And don’t forget he qualified in the top five in tricky conditions in Malaysia, only his third GP.

The big question now is what happens tomorrow when we are likely to have a dry track – and also a green one, after rain last night and today cleaned it. Obviously teams didn’t get any extra dry tire information today, and that means it’s a little step into the unknown in terms of how the tires will behave over a long run.

Nico will be under huge pressure, not just because he knows he has the chance of a lifetime to show what he can do, but because he has those four big names right behind him. Rubens pointed out tonight that the Williams isn’t great off the line. This will also be his first start on the upward slope of Interlagos, although he has had a few practices at the end of sessions, and seems confident that he can stay ahead.

Don’t underestimate the guy. Since he was a kid in karting he’s been a winner, constantly starting from pole. For him this is situation normal. The anomaly has been starting the Williams from 14th or whatever, and being stuck down in the pack.

It’s a tricky one though, because while he has to look after his own interests, he knows that there’s a title battle going on around him. Ife he gets involved on contact with any one of those guys it’s not going to do him any favours.

“The best thing is to do a good start and drive off from them,” he says. “But I think if it is dry it is not going to happen. I just try to do my race and do a good start. I know these guys are fighting for the championships, so I don’t want to cause any trouble but I also have to look for my own performance. We are also battling with Force India for P6 in the Constructors’, so I am sure I can manage it and I hope I can bring some good points back home tomorrow...”

Patrick Head is confident that his guy can do a good job: “I think he can get away well. I don’t think we’re kidding ourselves that we’re fully competitive in the dry with Red Bulls or Ferraris. Inevitably it will be difficult for him. But then nobody’s going to complain about starting on pole. It’s a question of trying to run a sensible race without being improperly defensive, which I don’t think he will be.”
Realistically he is not going to be able to hold off those Red Bulls for very long on performance, and this is a track where overtaking is relatively straightforward. As Head implies it’s a question really of how hard he is willing to defend his position when one of those guys tries to come down the inside.

Nico Hulkenberg, Williams FW32 Cosworth smiles with Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull Racing RB6 Renault after claiming pole position. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

And they in turn don’t know quite what to expect, although Webber had a little taste of Nico’s determination in Monza.

Asked to what extent he would take notice of Hulkenberg, Vettel joked: “I have to take notice of him, he’s ahead of me. If he was starting from P8 I probably wouldn’t notice that much, but he’s ahead so he’s a challenger, so we are racing against him. The race is long, a lot of things can happen, you don’t know. We know that we should be quicker in the race. Our car is quite a bit quicker than the Williams, but we still need to find out tomorrow, so focus on having a good start and then, as I said, it’s a long race, a lot of things can happen around here.”

Indeed history shows that wet or dry, this can be an eventful race.

“A safety car is not impossible. If you have it at the right time it can help you, at the wrong time… and if you’re unlucky it can ruin your race. There are a lot of things we need to watch out for. It’s a long race. Regarding the championship, I don’t bother too much. I do my two races, starting with this one, so the focus is on tomorrow’s race. I try to optimise my performance. I think there’s a lot of you guys telling me if it’s looking good or looking bad afterwards...”

Hulkenberg’s presence on pole has added an extra dimension to the title battle. Vettel and Webber on the front row would have been intriguing enough in its own right, given the way tension in the RBR camp has been rising. There’s so much at stake for all concerned. And right behind them is Lewis Hamilton, who has to get in front of both of them to keep his title hopes alive.
And there in fifth place is a certain Fernando Alonso. If he finishes in the top three he could win the title tomorrow, depending on where Webber ends up, and it wouldn’t surprise me if that’s exactly what happens.

Alonso seemed pretty chilled about fifth, recognising that it wasn’t a bad outcome on a day that could have been something of a lottery. He says that he will ‘take it a little bit easy’ at the start given the line-up in front, which is a sensible plan. But sometimes when you try to do that, that’s when things go wrong...

Adam Cooper notched up his 25th season as a racing journalist in 2009. Born in London, England, he saw his first F1 race at age 10 in 1976. He began freelancing for Autosport magazine in 1985 and was on the fulltime staff from 1987-92. He then went freelance again, initially spending two years in Japan before following the 1994 Champcar series from a base in Indianapolis. He has not missed a Grand Prix since Suzuka ‘94, a run that has extended to Abu Dhabi ’09. Adam has written books about Eddie Irvine, Piers Courage and Michael Schumacher. He has written about F1 for SPEED.com since 2005. Check out Adam's Blog or follow him on Twitter

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