Hulkenberg feared Austin pace was ‘too good to be true’ before bagging P4 in Sprint Qualifying

Nico Hulkenberg feared his pace in practice was "too good to be true" before qualifying on the second row of the Sprint grid at the United States Grand Prix weekend, marking his best starting position of the season.

The Sauber driver reached the top-10 shootout for the first time this season, and went on to set the fourth fastest time in Sprint Qualifying, meaning he will start Saturday’s Sprint behind only Max Verstappen, Lando Norris, and Oscar Piastri.

Although Hulkenberg had shown strong pace in practice by going second fastest, the German was surprised to remain a frontrunner in the later session.

“Satisfied, happy as you might imagine,” said Hulkenberg. “Obviously, in FP1 things were looking good already, but it kind of looked too good to be true, so we weren’t sure if that was the real deal or what other people were up to with their programme. But yeah, we were able to continue that trend.

“The car felt quite alright. Obviously, it is always your own feeling and perception maybe that doesn’t always match with the lap times say, but the lap times and the stopwatch doesn’t lie, and that looked pretty good all day. So happy, will take that forward and hopefully we can hang onto it this weekend.”

Claiming that Sauber has “hit the sweet spot” with its set up, Hulkenberg conceded it will be “difficult” to keep the traditional front runners behind in the Sprint.

He added: “Okay, it is not a full race but even in a Sprint, a bunch of really quick cars with usually a bit of better tyre deg numbers but obviously we will fight, see what we can hang onto and hopefully something rewarding."

The positivity in the Sauber garage was muted somewhat by the troubles of Gabriel Bortoleto, however, who, after seeing his first effort in SQ1 deleted for a track limits violation, failed to reach the line to start his second attempt before the chequered flag was shown. As a result, he will line up last on the Sprint grid.

“The first lap was track limits, but it was not a good enough lap anyway,” said the Brazilian. “Then the second lap, we just left the garage too late and didn’t even make it, so there’s nothing to say. I did only one lap, and it was track limits.

“The car didn’t feel too bad. It’s a shame, because I think it was good. But we work for tomorrow, and tomorrow is the main quali.”