NICO Hulkenberg admitted he had hoped for more rain towards the end of the German Grand Prix as he came fifth in front of his home crowd.

The heavens opened at Hockenheim with 25 laps to go, leading to a chaotic finish which saw world champion Lewis Hamilton take victory after starting 14th following Sebastian Vettel's crash.

Hulkenberg was among those to profit in his Enstone-based Renault, but teammate Carlos Sainz finished outside the points in 12th after a ten-second time penalty for overtaking during the safety-car period.

The German was delighted to secure his best finish for the team.

Hulkenberg said: “I’m very happy with that.

“The first part of the race wasn’t so exciting, but it was unfolding nicely towards the end, then the rain hit us.

“It was tricky out there trying to keep it on the road, but I enjoy those conditions and started to make some gains.

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  • Renault's Nico Hulkenberg ahead of the German Grand Prix Picture: XPB/James Moy Photography Ltd

“It’s good points for the team, our joint best finish of the season and my best finish with Renault.

“More crazy conditions would have been nice, but we’ll take that.

“We made the right decisions and that’s why we deserved fifth.

“We’ve been working hard for it, so it’s a nice reward for the team. We did a good job.”

Sainz added: “It was a difficult race for me in the end.

“We made a good start off the line, but then I got squeezed and lost a little bit of momentum.

“The race settled after that and we were looking in a good position to score points before rain made the track quite slippery and difficult.

“Unfortunately, I stopped for intermediate tyres the lap before Vettel crashed, so we were slightly unlucky with the timing.

“We finished in the top ten, but the penalty ended our chances of securing points, which is disappointing and we’ll look at what happened there.”

Romain Grosjean was sixth for Banbury-based Haas.

Teammate Kevin Magnussen was also on course to finish inside the top-ten before the rain arrived.

But Grosjean was pleased with his result.

He said: “That was good fun. It was a good end to the race. 

“We didn’t quite get the right choice putting inters on, as the track dried really quickly for some reason.

“It was a bit of luck, a gamble, but we came back on slicks, and I had amazing fun through those last laps.

“I was just pushing it to the limit and going for it.

”The boys deserved a really good drive from me, and I had fun doing it.”

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  • Romain Grosjean attacks a corner at Hockenheim Picture: Glenn Dunbar 

Magnussen was disappointed to finish 11th after finding himself inside the top six for a long period of time.

He said: “Obviously, it wasn’t ideal to end up outside of the points after being P6 for the whole race.

“We didn’t quite get the best out of the weather situation.

“We’ll just have to learn from that and do better next time.”

Sergey Sirotkin was left to rue an engine oil leak.

The Russian had qualified 12th in the Williams, but it turned into another disappointing day for the Grove-based team as Lance Stroll also retired with a brake issue.

Sirotkin said: “It was a good race and I had to fight quite a lot at the start.

“I had some good fights which I won and others which I unfortunately lost as I was not in position to do so.

“But once the race settled down it was a good race and we managed the tyre well.

“The pace was reasonable and when the rain started, I was very confident and closed the gap between cars ahead of me quite quickly.

“When the safety car was deployed I felt it was our chance but unfortunately, I had a call to stop the car immediately.”

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  • Sergey Sirotkin was forced to retire with an engine oil leak Picture: Glenn Dunbar

Stroll added: “I had to retire as I lost brakes.

“Qualifying looked strong, but the pace wasn’t great in the race.

“Looking at the results, (Toro Rosso’s Brendon) Hartley scored a point and we were in front of him before we stopped for the inters and then obviously we had to retire with the brake failure.

“However, at a certain stage we were looking pretty good.

“It is a shame we could not be there at the end to capitalise on some of the mixed conditions.”