Nico Hulkenberg says he was satisfied after returning to the points paying positions at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Hulkenberg briefly led the race as tyre strategies played out and ended in eighth to notch up four more points for Force India.

"It was quite a cool race and very satisfying to finish in eighth," he said.

"With a three-stop race you are always pushing, but my race was not too complicated and I was on my own for a large part of the afternoon. I also had a few nice battles and it was good fun.

"The car felt a bit better today compared to earlier in the weekend so I was more comfortable and really able to push. The team made the right calls on the strategy and we maximised our performance with the tyres in these very hot conditions. I finished just behind the two Ferraris and maybe with one or two more laps I could have finished sixth instead of eighth, but that’s racing."

Team-mate Sergio Perez had a low-key run to 15th position, which included a five second penalty for speeding in the pits.

"It was a difficult race and things didn’t really go my way all weekend," he said.

"With the track time we lost on Friday and the grid penalty yesterday, we always knew it was going to be hard to recover the lost ground. I tried my best to fight through in the race, but I lost a lot of track position following the five-second penalty and for most of the afternoon I was stuck in traffic. I couldn’t make any progress and the cars around us were on a similar strategy."