Opinion: Hulkenberg's podium was even more epic than Lando's home win
15 years and 239 attempts later, the Hulk smashes his way to a trophy at last Skip 10 photos in the image carousel and continue reading
This ought to be a recap of how Lando Norris fulfilled a childhood dream by winning the British Grand Prix in front of his home crowd… but we've been entirely distracted by a Sauber. Because F1.
For while Lando Norris was ticking a big ticket item off his bucket list, Nico Hulkenberg was busy ending F1's longest-running hoodoo, scything his way to his first ever podium finish at the 239th time of asking and more than 15 years after his debut.
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And boy did he earn it. Starting all the way back in 19th, the 37-year-old was up to P10 by lap seven, and after stopping for new inters a few laps before a deluge of rain brought out the safety car, Sauber's strategy had vaulted him up into P5.
That became P4 when Verstappen spun out on the restart, and when the DRS was enabled on lap 35 Hulkenberg used it to breeze past the Aston Martin of Lance Stroll and into P3. You might like
All he needed to do now was, er, hold off a seven-time world champion chasing his first podium in Ferrari red. But somehow the German driver did exactly that, repelling Lewis Hamilton on pure pace until it was finally dry enough for slicks.
That should've left the Sauber defenceless, but Hamilton went deep into Village and that gave Nico enough of a gap to bring the car home and trigger bedlam in the Not-Audi-Yet garage.
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Everything after that was pure feels. Hulkenberg mobbed in Parc Ferme; the roar of the crowd as he took to the podium; the video of his daughter dancing in front of the TV at home. Wholesome stuff, right?
And all this after his F1 career looked over when he was dropped by Renault at the end of 2019, and only found his way back into a full-time drive three years later with Haas.
'Easy,' he joked afterwards. 'I always knew it, you know? It was just a question of time. I feel happy, feel relieved. Also feel pretty empty right now, [an] emotional rollercoaster this weekend.
'Being virtually last here yesterday and a pretty bad day, to one of the best days of my career. It's obviously a lot to take in.'
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READ MORE Will this new UK technology centre propel Sauber up the F1 grid?
He's got three weeks until the next race to savour it, and when F1 reconvenes in Belgium the friendliest championship battle in living memory will resume with McLaren teammates Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri split by just eight points.
The Aussie had been on course to win at Silverstone, but that controversial 10-second penalty for braking heavily behind the safety car cost him victory. Harsh, or was that a bit sketchy with all that spray around?
… you're not listening are you? We can already hear you typing NIIIICOOO HULKENBERGGG into the comments from here.
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