Hulkenberg: Vettel left me nowhere to go

Nico Hulkenberg says Sebastian Vettel forced him to take avoiding action to prevent a collision during the Canadian Grand Prix but with hindsight believes he shouldn't have been so aggressive against the Ferrari driver.

Vettel had been charging through the pack after starting from the back of the grid and as the two Germans battled for position their fight came to a head at the final chicane, when the former F1 world champion attempted a move on the outside. As Hulkenberg defended on the dirtier inside line his Force India machine lost grip, forcing Hulkenberg into a spin to avoid sliding into Vettel.

Reflecting on the incident, Hulkenberg says it was driver's instinct to defend the position and put his spin down to a racing incident.

"In hindsight I probably shouldn't have tried so hard to defend against Seb, but when you're a racer you just don't want to give up a position without a fight," Hulkenberg said. "He took the outside line, I was on the inside, braking on the dirt and the marbles. I could see it coming but he didn't leave me anywhere to go so to avoid contact I kept braking, lost the rear and spun."

The German was able to recover from his spin to take an eighth place finish in Montreal and says he leaves Canada feeling satisfied with his race weekend.

"I am very happy to come away from here with four points - that's definitely some positive news," he says. "It was not the most eventful race and I was by myself most of the time, except for the battle with Sebastian Vettel."

"Overall it's been a positive weekend. We keep finding good performance from our VJM08 and the team is pushing hard to find more speed.

"It means we are making good progress and we're closing in on fifth in the championship, so the second half of the season should be very interesting."

Hulkenberg will now fly to Le Mans in preparation for the prestigious 24 Hour endurance race, where he will compete for the Porsche LMP1 squad, co-driving alongside Earl Bamber and Nick Tandy.