Hulkenberg vows to fight back

The German ART driver qualified on pole position and was leading the first race when he suffered an engine failure while behind the safety car.

The ensuing 10-place grid penalty for changing the engine forced him to start from the very back in race two and, although he made good progress through the field, a rear suspension problem caused his second retirement of the weekend.

He scored a point for pole position but is nine behind joint championship leaders Mika Maki and Edoardo Mortara.

"We just need to write Hockenheim off and look forward to Mugello," he told autosport.com. "We'll see what we can learn but the technical failures weren't my fault or the team's fault, these things just happen with a new car and new systems.

"There are reasons to be confident - I was on pole by 0.7 seconds and was leading the race, so it was a shame but it was out of our hands and these things happen in motorsport.

"It's just a frustrating start to the season because we'd prepared so well and had been very strong in testing, in qualifying, and even in the race before everything went wrong."