Nico Hulkenberg
All too often this year The Hulk has seen himself outpaced and outraced by team-mate Sergio Perez. It had appeared at first glance that the Japanese Grand Prix would stick to the same script with Hulkenberg qualifying two places behind Perez and outside the top 10. Race day thankfully brought about a change in fortunes for the German as Perez found himself in trouble into T1 with several other cars, including Massa and Ricciardo, while Hulkenberg effortlessly glided his way through the mess to rise to 8th place. His team-mate limped back to the pits with a self-inflicted puncture.
Hulkenberg then stealthy made his way by both Lotus cars to rise up to 6th in the order. His race was rather mute from there on and we didn’t see much of him thanks to a spate of midfield battles. That shouldn’t take away from his race though; Hulkenberg was quick, consistent and stayed completely out of trouble. Force India team-mate Perez finished down in a very disappointing 12th place after failing to use his Mercedes power to his advantage.
So often he’s said to have been missed by top teams, while that may be true, he’s right at home at Force India (who we would love to be a top team one day soon) and is safely there for 2016 too, yay.
The Japanese GP was a race that ought to fill Hulkenberg with confidence, he is a very adept racer who perhaps just needs Lady Luck to blow him a kiss once in a while. For now though, he’s our 2015 Japanese GP TOP DOG. Good lad.
