Listen to this article Hulkenberg was confirmed on Friday morning as replacement for the COVID-hit Sebastian Vettel for the second race in a row. He qualified in 18th place for the Saudi Arabian GP, ahead of AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda, who couldn’t set a laptime in qualifying due to a fuel issue, although both move up one place on the final grid as the Haas of Mick Schumacher has been withdrawn after his heavy crash during qualifying. Hulkenberg said he felt better prepared than in Bahrain, where he was parachuted in with no testing, but conceded the Jeddah track is much more challenging. The German also revealed that running in the team simulator at Silverstone last week was of limited help because the real experience of the Jeddah circuit is so different. “More preparation, more time,” he said. “But this track is something else, it’s nothing to compare with the tracks that I’ve raced. “It’s so high-speed, for a street circuit, it’s pretty mind-blowing, very demanding, very challenging, therefore. “It was difficult this weekend to find the good confidence, to find the rhythm. And that continued in quali. There was more in it, I had a couple of tenths i …