German Nico Hulkenberg was one of twenty drivers to participate in this year’s Japanese Grand Prix at the figure of eight track of Suzuka.
Hulkenberg narrowly missed out on qualifying three, being eleventh fastest. The German lost out by just under two-tenths of a second on Daniil Kvyat – who started from the pits after suffering a huge shunt in qualifying.
Hulkenberg stated “Of course it’s disappointing to miss out on Q3 by such a small margin, but I can’t complain too much about our performance today.”
Hulkenberg had a good start, gaining positions courtesy of incidents occurring in front of him involving teammate Sergio Perez and Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo.
Thanks to some well-timed pit stops, Hulkenberg managed to get out in front of both Lotus drivers. This allowed the German to lap in clean air.
His drive was good enough for him to achieve sixth place in the race, he now sits one point behind his team-mate – Mexican Sergio Perez – in the world championship standings.
‘A great result today and realistically sixth was the maximum we could achieve when you remember that I started from P13’ was the response from a happy Hulkenberg after the race.
