Hulkenberg rids himself of unwanted record at the 239th attempt

SILVERSTONE, England :Nico Hulkenberg provided Formula One's feel-good story of the day, and possibly the season, at the British Grand Prix and nobody was more surprised and delighted than the 37-year-old German.

After 15 years, and at the 239th attempt, the Sauber driver finally shrugged off the unwanted record of the most race starts without ever standing on the podium - and replaced it with the most starts until a first podium.

"I don't think I can comprehend what we've just done," he said over the team radio after taking third place.

Hulkenberg did it in fairytale fashion, following a script that even the producers of the recently-released Brad Pitt blockbuster F1 movie would probably have rejected as too implausible.

He started last on the grid, in 19th place with Alpine's Franco Colapinto lining up in the pitlane, for Swiss-based Sauber.

Thanks to clever strategy and pitting at absolutely the right time, Hulkenberg took Sauber to their first podium in 13 years and also became the team's all-time lowest-starting top-three finisher.

"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."

With nine-times British GP winner Lewis Hamilton in fourth place for Ferrari, it had seemed inevitable that Hulkenberg would be reeled in and his day would end yet again as a story of what might have