Hülkenberg had issues on the car "at worst possible time during qualifying"

Renault driver https://www.gpblog.com/en/tag-news/daniel-ricciardoNico Hülkenberg has revealed his poor qualifying performance in Bahrain was due to an issue on his car, as the German couldn't make it out of Q1 as he qualified in 17th.

Both Hülkenberg and teammate Daniel Ricciardo struggled to keep their heads above water in the shootout of Q1, with both drivers dropping into the elimination zone in the last minute. Danny Ric managed to squeeze out a few extra tenths to survive the session, but The Hülk stayed behind.

Afterwards, he revealed it was because of an issue on the car.

"We unfortunately suffered a couple of issues with the car at the worst possible time during qualifying," Hülkenberg said.

"We lost performance and there was no chance of fixing anything in a short amount of time. We need to understand and fix these problems so they don't happen again.

"I've felt good in the car all weekend, so it's a shame to miss out on a top ten grid slot for the race. Hopefully, we can make something out of tomorrow, it's going to be tough from so far back, but we'll be giving it our best," the German concluded.

Renault wanted to close the gap to the top three teams this season, but things haven't exactly gone to plan so far. Neither of the cars have made it to Q3 yet in Australian or Bahrain. Worrying signs.