NICO Hulkenberg could not hide his disappointment after crashing out from fourth place in a chaotic German Formula 1 Grand Prix.

The 31-year-old ran wide at the last corner at his home race, ending his hopes of a fine result.

It proved to be a frustrating grand prix for Enstone-based Renault, with teammate Daniel Ricciardo retiring on lap 14 with an exhaust issue.

Declared a wet race, only 13 cars finished as Red Bull’s Max Verstappen took victory.

For Hulkenberg, the retirement was made more disappointing by the fact he had found himself second at one point.

But, when comfortably running fourth, he crashed into the wall on lap 29 when on course for his best finish in three years.

“It’s a tough one to take,” said Hulkenberg. “I’m upset for myself, the team and for Renault because they deserved an excellent result.”

“The final corner was very tricky as it was damp.

“It was like ice there and by that point I couldn’t stop the car.”

Haas, from Banbury, picked up ten points.

Thirty-second penalties for Alfa Romeo duo Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi for driver aid infringements, saw Romain Grosjean and teammate Kevin Magnussen promoted to seventh and eighth respectively.

“I’m very happy,” said the former. “It was obviously a bit of a crazy race."

Grove-based Williams also benefitted from the post-race penalties, picking up their first point of the season.

Having orginally finished 12th, Robert Kubica was promoted to tenth.

Initially Williams had been unable to make the most of the incident-strewn race to get off the mark in 2019.

George Russell ran eighth at one point, but came 13th, before being pushed up to 11th.

Most of the drivers used multiple sets of the intermediate tyre in the changeable conditions, but Russell rued a missed opportunity.

He said: “We should have taken slicks under the penultimate safety car, but I think we took the conservative approach when we should have maybe rolled the dice.

"There were 13 or 14 other drivers on the grid who didn’t do that so it’s not exactly that we made the wrong call, but we had the opportunity to make the right call.

“It was the best result of the year. It seems okay but there was a chance for more.”