Nico Hulkenberg has revealed how he went from enjoying a coffee in Cologne on Saturday morning to driving for Racing Point at the Eifel Grand Prix at the Nurburgring.
Racing Point team principal Otmar Szafnauer made a last-minute plea to the 33-year-old to replace Lance Stroll, who was struck down by illness and missed the first practice session.
Hulkenberg had stood in for Stroll's team-mate Sergio Perez on two occasions in August after the Mexican tested positive for Covid-19, and was familiar with the car and circuit.
He had been due to drive to the Nurburgring as part of his duties with broadcaster RTL, but Hulkenberg spoke of his shock at getting the call so close to qualifying.
"It was even wilder and crazier than last time," he told Sky Sports F1 of his latest comeback.
"I was sat with a friend having a coffee at 11am when I see that Otmar rings me and he says 'Hulkenberg hurry, we need you here'.
"I stepped in the car and came here and the rest is history."
The circuit is about an hour from Cologne by road and Hulkenberg also needed to take and pass a Covid test once he had parked up his Porsche.
With no practice at a circuit he last raced on in 2013, and with the Racing Point upgraded since his last outing, qualifying was always going to be hard as he finished at the back of the grid in 20th.
"The car has moved on, there's a couple of technical bits that are very different and give the driver a very different sensation so I had to adjust around that a bit, just find my feet again," Hulkenberg added.
"In four laps that's not so easy. But all in all, even though we're last, I'm quite pleased with the laps we produced just now."
Additional reporting from Reuters.