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Nico Hulkenberg does not believe his unexpected fifth place in the Italian Grand Prix will boost his chances of a Ferrari drive.

With Ferrari keen to make a decision on its 2014 line-up next week, current Sauber man Hulkenberg is among the drivers under consideration.

"Obviously, I did a good weekend, had a strong showing and it was a good team performance but I don't think one race will change the world and change the whole story," said Hulkenberg.

"I've had other good races previously this year, but obviously the result stands out a bit more this weekend.

"Maybe you can argue the timing is not so bad, but a good result like this is always important and very welcome, especially after quite a challenging year to give us some momentum for the flyaways."

Just how good is Hulkenberg?

The German insists he is relaxed about his future and is certain the job he has done on track in Formula 1 is enough to show what he can do.

He pointed to his performances both for Sauber and for Force India in 2012 as proof of his abilities.

"I'm fairly relaxed about it, to be honest," when asked how he felt about Ferrari's imminent decision.

"I have done a very decent job here, we have done a 100 per cent score this weekend and that's all I can do.

"Even the year before I think my performance has been very consistent and very good, that's all I can influence now.

"Some decisions are not in my hands."

MONZA RESULT UNEXPECTED

Hulkenberg admitted that while he was hoping for such a good result after qualifying third, he did not expect it.

Although confident the car had the pace to be competitive, he was surprised to finish only 10 seconds off race-winner Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull after holding off the faster Nico Rosberg's Mercedes in the closing stages.

"I was not expecting, but hoping," he said.

"On Friday, my long-run pace was competitive so from that point of view I had confidence and was comfortable.

"But then to see us, especially in the last 15 laps, close the gap to Ferrari and Red bull was quite surprising.

"The Mercedes behind was pushing as well, Nico was very quick and without me in his way he could maybe have gone on for a podium."