Third place qualifying "surprised" Hülkenberg

Racing Point stand-in Nico Hülkenberg admitted he was "a bit surprised" after incredibly qualifying third for the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix.

The 32-year-old has only had a week to get to know the RP20 after being called up last Thursday night to replace Sergio Perez, who tested positive for Covid-19 last week and did so again on Friday morning.

Out-qualifying his temporary team-mate Lance Stroll, who will start from sixth, the German logged his best qualifying result since Austria 2016.

"This weekend I felt much better in the car, much more prepared," said Hülkenberg.

"Qualifying was still tricky. In Q2, I made life hard for myself a bit and I was a bit scared that I damaged the car.

"Q3 was just head down, full beans and give it whatever I had. I'm a bit surprised, to be honest, to stand here, but obviously a big smile on my face!"

After dropping into the elimination zone in Q2, Hülkenberg put in a rapid lap at the death to launch him to P2 on the medium compound.

A mechanical issue last Sunday prevented Hülkenberg from competing in the British Grand Prix and he expects Sunday's race to "hurt".

He added: "It's definitely going to hurt tomorrow, not having last week's experience and not having gone through the motions with the start and everything.

"But we'll do what we can, I'll try to learn fast and to keep the car where it deserves to be. There is no time to cheer yet because tomorrow is the big day."

Before you go...

Hülkenberg stuns with third in qualifying behind polesitter Bottas

70th Anniversary Grand Prix Qualifying - Live Blog!

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