The ‘unusual and unfortunate’ reason why Hulkenberg's race in Barcelona came to an abrupt end

Nico Hulkenberg looked on track for his first top-10 finish of the season in the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, but the Audi driver was forced to retire the car mid-race for a highly unusual reason.

The German is one of four drivers yet to score this season – along with Lance Stroll, Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas – but that seemed set to change on Sunday as he was running in the top 10 and fighting hard with Liam Lawson for P9.

With the two battling on Lap 28, the New Zealander ran wide at Turn 12 and dipped a wheel into the gravel, some of which was sent into the path of the Audi behind. In a freak occurence, the gravel hit the car's safety fire switch and triggered a shutdown of Hulkenberg's R26.

As a result the German was left unable to do anything but coast into the pits and retire from the race.

“It was a very unusual and unfortunate retirement," Hulkenberg explained afterwards. "Liam [Lawson] ran slightly wide ahead of me and put a wheel into the gravel at Turn 12, which kicked up a lot of stones.

“Some of them hit our car and appear to have triggered the emergency safety switch, causing a complete shutdown of the system.

"Everything switched off instantly and that was the end of our race. It's obviously very frustrating because we were in a good position to fight for points.”

There are plenty of tracks with gravel on the F1 calendar, with teams regularly asked to check the floors of the car after a driver runs wide into a gravel trap. There have also been red flags in practice after such incidents, when marshals go and sweep the loose stuff back into place and off the race track. But for gravel to hit a safety switch is a far less common occurence.

“It was a very frustrating end to what had been a very good weekend for us as a team,” added Audi Racing Director Allan McNish. "Nico’s car shut down after Lawson ran wide and kicked up gravel, which struck the safety fire switch.

“That triggered an automatic safety function designed to shut the car down in an emergency situation. Nico was able to coast back to the pits, but unfortunately that was the end of his race.”

Audi lost further ground to their midfield rivals in Barcelona, with Racing Bulls and Alpine both scoring, while Hulkenberg's team mate Gabriel Bortoleto came home 11th. But there was at least one positive for the team to take.

“The pace we showed throughout the weekend was convincing and, after yesterday's Qualifying, there was a genuine opportunity to come away with a strong result,” Hulkenberg said.

"Unfortunately, we leave with nothing to show for it, but this was simply a case of bad luck rather than a performance or reliability issue."