It was a strong weekend for the Force India team who qualified well and brought both cars home in the top ten, scoring valuable points and rising above Lotus in the constructors’ championship.
2015 ITALIAN GRAND PRIX FORCE INDIA REVIEW
No. 27 Nico Hülkenberg
Form: 7/14/R/13/15/11/8/6/7/RET/DNS/7
Hulkenberg had a strong showing in practice, consistently finishing in the top five. When in came to qualifying, he was impeded twice by the Sauber of Marcus Ericsson and ended up exiting early due to a power failure. Nevertheless, he still managed to qualify ninth. A strong start saw him narrowly avoid the stalled Raikkonen, however, during the first corner melee; he had an incident with the Lotus of Pastor Maldonado. Although the Venezuelan ended up retiring from the damage, the Hulk seemingly survived with little trouble. His race from then on was quite quiet until he came under attack from Ericsson. The German was heard on the radio complaining about the lack of power, grip and traction as the Swede closed in on him. Nico’s frustrations were clearly evident, being almost 20 seconds down on his teammate. Nevertheless, Hulkenberg should be happy with his performance to come home seventh after previously not finishing or starting the last two races and holding off the Sauber, to finish just ahead of Daniel Ricciardo.
No. 11 Sergio Pérez
Form: 10/13/11/8/13/7/11/9/9/RET/5/6
Everyone always talks about how Nico Hulkenberg is the next driver to move up to a top team. However, for the moment at least, his teammate is trumping him in all aspects of a race weekend. Indeed, if last time out in Spa wasn’t a confidence boost for Sergio Perez, then this weekend certainly will be. The Mexican out qualified his popular teammate to start seventh. Perez had a fairly calm race, managing his tires well and pulling a massive gap to his teammate. Once the recovering Raikkonen caught up to the Force India, Perez did his best to defend, but the speed difference soon became apparent. Nevertheless, Sergio did a sterling job to help move the Silverstone based squad back to fifth in the constructors.
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