Hülkenberg returned from the summer break in Belgium in good form as he qualified 7th and finished 6th in the race. At Singapore, it was announced that Carlos Sainz Jr. would replace Jolyon Palmer, who at that time had scored 0 points to Hülkenberg's 34 points, for the 2018 season. Hülkenberg qualified 'best of the rest' in 7th. After the first lap of the race, Hülkenberg found himself in 3rd place, following the first corner collision and subsequent retirements of Sebastian Vettel, Kimi Räikkönen, Max Verstappen and the fast-starting McLaren of Fernando Alonso. He looked set to take his long-awaited first podium finish in Formula 1, until Daniil Kvyat crashed and brought out the Safety Car and a blunder in strategy by Renault left him in 5th place. He eventually got up to 4th place, before an oil leak brought about his retirement from the race, in which he succeeded Adrian Sutil to become the record holder for the most starts in Formula 1 without a podium finish.