Nico Hulkenberg, who was filling in for Sainz at Ferrari, lined up in the Spaniard’s vacant grid spot. However, he later received a 10-second penalty for this infringement. Hulkenberg candidly admitted his mistake, saying, “I screwed up. We don’t need to argue about it. It’s a strange situation when suddenly there’s no car in front of you. You’re used to catching up. Screwed up, plain and simple.”
Replays of the race’s start showed Hulkenberg frantically looking around as he seemingly realized his error. “I realized before I stopped, but you can’t reverse, and the damage was done, so that was obviously a big mistake from me,” he explained. “That stopped our race before it even started.”
