Hulkenberg forced to miss British GP on F1 return

Nico Hulkenberg will miss the British Grand Prix after his Racing Point Formula 1 team discovered an issue on his car just before the start of the race.

The 32-year-old German was drafted in at the last-minute to make a surprise comeback to the F1 grid, acting as stand-in for team regular Sergio Perez, who contracted COVID-19 following a trip to Mexico between the Hungarian and British Grands Prix.

Hulkenberg came in to replace the Mexican and complete the team’s line-up alongside Lance Stroll for this weekend’s race at Silverstone, the fourth round of the delayed 2020 world championship.

Following a crazy 24 hours, Hulkenberg managed to qualify his Racing Point 13th on the grid for Sunday’s British Grand Prix in his first F1 appearance since the 2019 season finale in Abu Dhabi.

However, Racing Point detected a suspected power unit-related issue on his RP20 as they attempted to fire up his car to send it out to the grid for the usual pre-race reconnaissance laps prior to the start.

The crew pushed his car back to the garage and hoped to be able to start the race from the pitlane, but Racing Point was unsuccessful in its attempts to address the problem, making Hulkenberg’s return short-lived.

Racing Point confirmed Hulkenberg would not take the start “after an issue was discovered with his car leaving the garage to head to the grid” just five minutes before lights out.

Although it has not been officially confirmed, Hulkenberg is expected to contest next weekend's 70th Anniversary Grand Prix at Silverstone.