Wilhelm Driver grades GP Japan 2015
09/28/2015
D he GP Japan was a colorless race. Even its main actors could not distinguish themselves. There were also no duels. Lewis Hamilton already missed the perfect weekend in qualifying. For the second time this year he had to line up behind Nico Rosberg. One could argue that the championship leader would have knocked Rosberg off the throne if Daniil Kvyat hadn't broken it off with his crash, but hypotheses don't count.
Nico Rosberg lost the race once again at the start . And then did not show the necessary toughness in the duel in the second corner. He got some of the lost sympathy points back through his great overtaking maneuver against Valtteri Bottas. Sebastian Vettel did not have a winning car with the Ferrari in Suzuka. But he made the best of it. The only points of criticism: a long way to the perfect setup, and more problems than Rosberg in traffic.
The stars in the chasing field were Nico Hülkenberg, Romain Grosjean and Max Verstappen. All three performed flawlessly and were rewarded with World Cup points. Hülkenberg drove unobtrusively and flawlessly in 6th place. Grosjean did not let himself be disturbed by the Lotus financial problems and the associated poor preparation. And Verstappen once again showed a big fighter heart. If his Toro Rosso hadn't let him down in training, he would have ended up further ahead.
Driver ratings GP Japan 2015
Here the driver grades from Suzuka in the short overview. As always, the individual reviews for all 20 pilots can be found in the picture gallery.
- Lewis Hamilton: 9/10
- Nico Rosberg: 8/10
- Sebastian Vettel: 9/10
- Kimi Räikkönen: 8/10
- Valtteri Bottas: 8/10
- Nico Hülkenberg: 9/10
- Romain Grosjean: 9/10
- Pastor Maldonado: 7/10
- Max Verstappen: 9/10
- Carlos Sainz: 6 /10
- Fernando Alonso: 7/10
- Sergio Perez: 7/10
- Daniil Kvyat: 4/10
- Marcus Ericsson : 6/10
- Daniel Ricciardo: 6/10
- Jenson Button: 5/10
- Felipe Massa: 6/10
- Alexander Rossi: 6/10
- Will Stevens: 3/10
- Felipe Nasr: 6/10
