Nico Hulkenberg secured his first-ever Formula 1 Podium at the British Grand Prix in July 06. However, this feel-good ended up having a controversial finish after he was ignored by the McLaren duo of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri during the celebrations.
Hulkenberg finished the race in the third position, beating stalwarts like Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen to clinch his first ever podium in 239 races.
Nico Hulkenberg has been driving at the top levels for 15 years and finally managed to shrug off the unwanted record of the most race starts without ever standing on the Podium.
While the entire F1 world Celebrated Hulkenberg’s achievement, McLaren drivers decided to celebrate their 1-2 finish at the British Grand Prix with their race engineers failing to acknowledge Hulkenberg, who was also on the podium.
The duo got slammed on social media for their selfish behaviour, with fans stating that the vibe of the celebrations was off.
An ecstatic Hulkenberg, however did not care as he was showered with love by the likes of Mercedes and Aston Martin, who hand delivered special bottles of champagne to the racer.
“I don’t think I can comprehend what we’ve just done,” Nico Hulkenberg said over the team radio after taking third place.
P3 – YEESSSSS!!! 🤩
NICO HULKENBERG SCORES HIS FIRST F1 PODIUM IN HIS 239TH RACE 👏👏👏#F1 #BritishGP pic.twitter.com/rKHNIdIfZL
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 6, 2025
“It feels good. It’s been a long time coming, hasn’t it?” said Hulkenberg, rather stating the obvious, after tumultuous pitlane celebrations.
“I always knew we have it in us, I had it in me somewhere… it’s pretty surreal, to be honest. Not sure how it all happened, but obviously crazy conditions, mixed conditions. It was a survival fight for a lot of the race.
“I think we just were really on it. The right calls, the right tyres, at the right moment. Made no mistakes and, yeah, quite incredible.”
After several close podium misses in the past, Nico Hulkenberg continued, “Today, I think I was in denial until the last pit stop, then when I heard we had gapped Lewis quite a bit with the one extra lap I was like, ‘Okay, this is good! This is some breathing space!’
“But then he was catching quite quickly. The pressure was there, it was an intense race, but we didn’t crack. No mistakes and obviously really, really happy with that.
“Obviously I was thinking that Lewis is going to give it all in front of his home crowd and I was like, ‘Sorry guys – it’s also my day!’ I’ve got to stick my neck out.”
Hulkenberg’s fourth successive top-10 finish moves Sauber up to sixth in the Team’s Championship standing on 41 points, five clear of rival Racing Bulls and Aston Martin.
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