Oh right, I had quite the brainfart there.
The steward decision states that Hülkenberg “failed to stay above the minimum time set”, so I guess he actually was too slow (which was seems to be an overcorrection from being too fast initially). Or is that expression actually steward-speak for “speeding”?
At this point I really need the penalties displayed next to the timing tower like in the F1 games. Can’t keep up with them.