The Haas Formula 1 team have protested against Nico Hulkenberg's seventh-place finish at the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday after late Red Flag threw the race into confusion, the governing FIA said.
The Haas driver lined up seventh on the grid for the second restart, for a two-lap sprint to decide the winner but he moved up to fourth as cars crashed out in the first lap. The crashes triggered the third and final Red Flag.
After lengthy deliberations, stewards decided the race would finish according to grid positions at the restart with a lap behind a safety car minus the cars that had crashed. That meant Hulkenberg finished seventh, according to the race's provisional classification.
Commenting on his race, Hulkenberg said: "It was wild and a bit messy at times. We'll have to look through everything that happened as there were a lot of things happening.
"I had a super start the third time around on softs and came through to P4, so it's a shame there were a few incidents and then the race was red flagged. There are a lot of positive learnings again and I feel there are a lot of good things happening.
"I'm refreshed, in a very positive mindset and really enjoy working with the team and experimenting with the car. We have very good momentum and that's what we want to take into the next races," the German concluded.
Magnussen's hit didn't feel so bad to him
His teammate Kevin Magnussen who's crash brought out a Safety Car and one of the Red Flags on Lap 55 added: "I brushed the wall at the exit of Turn 2 and the rim broke, the tire came off and I had to stop.
I didn't even feel it so it definitely wasn't something that felt big in the car, but it was enough to crack the rim and take the tire off.
"It's unfortunate, we were in P12 I think at that time and it didn't look like I was going to be able to score points. We got unlucky with the first red flag as we had just pitted from P11 and we seemed to be quicker than the next couple of cars so I was quite confident at that stage of the race.
"Then we pitted under the safety car and just afterwards, it turned to a red flag. Everyone put their tires on to go to the end of the race and we were last.
"It wasn't my day but it seemed like the car had decent pace so I'm encouraged by that and we'll push next time," the Dane concluded. (
Reporting by Ian Ransom
, Additional reporting by GrandPrix247Latest News
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