Nico Hülkenberg fired his way to a third sixth position of the season in Spa last weekend, the Renault driver fighting a gutsy race a she battled with some of the greats like Fernando Alonso, to ensure that he brought home as many points as possible for the French based squad.
Now, as we head inti the second round of the back to back events following the summer break, the final race of the European season, the Italian Grand Prix, the German driver is lining up even more points on the highspeed and historic Monza circuit.
What do you make of Monza?
It's a very unique place; incredibly special and holds a lot of history. In terms of the actual track, it's a high-speed layout which means a low downforce configuration for the car, to favour top speed. Having such low downforce becomes uncomfortable sometimes as the car feels light and quite floaty, which can be a bit of a struggle. Monza features a lot of hard braking zones and boasts some legendary corner combinations such as the Lesmos and the Parabolica. You can really feel the history, which is something I enjoy.
And what about the Italian atmosphere?
Italy has a really good buzz, and that gets even better during the Grand Prix weekend in Monza. It's a really special atmosphere. I love the whole park and area surrounding the track too. I like my food and, of course, eating a good pizza is mandatory during the weekend! The Italian lifestyle is really cool there and you can feel their passion around town.
What's the summary from Spa?
It was a good and successful end to quite a tricky weekend. We struggled a little bit on Friday and Saturday as we made changes to find the right setup and balance. On race day I was much happier as once again we've shown we are the fourth quickest team, it's looking very positive. Once we get the balance and harmony where we want it to be the results seem to follow. The team have been doing a great job, it's more points in the pocket for us which is satisfying. It's important now to keep the momentum going, rack up the points and close the gap to our competitors.
