Nico Hulkenberg believes that rain or shine, Force India will be competitive in Malaysia

One of the few drivers to have continually impressed the fans right throughout their career is Nico Hulkenberg. Having returned to Force India for this season, ‘The Hulk’ impressed with his strong drive at Melbourne. Although he initially expressed his frustration about the lack of pace in his car, he later expressed his satisfaction just ahead of the Malaysia Grand Prix weekend.

He was in the top 10 in both the Friday practice sessions, and was at P5 in FP3. He was in the top 5 in both Q1 and Q2 but had to settle for P7 in Q3. We at Rach F1 had a chat with him about his performance, and asked him whether the rain helped him in any manner, and this is what he had to say.

“I think in both conditions we’re strong. In FP3 which was dry, I was 4th as well, so I don’t think the rain helped us particularly, as it would have been pretty equal between dry and wet.”

It’s all about the race at Sepang, as there are plenty of overtaking opportunities on offer. We asked him about his target for the race.

“The target should be to keep our place at least, and ideally should gain some positions, and lots of points.”

For someone who is pretty confident about the weather, and for someone who has put in an impressive performance in FP3, we insisted on our last question, as to whether the Top 5 was realistic possibility, and this was his reaction to that:

“We shouldn’t expect that. Although that would be nice, we have to see what the conditions are, but if it’s dry, we know a lot of cars behind that are quick in the race, and in the long stint. Like I said, we have to wait and see how it’s first.”

Hulkenberg is in an interesting position. The real battle if it’s dry is for Position 3 as Mercedes are expected to dominate, unless something goes horribly wrong for them. Kimi Raikkonen was right on the money for Ferrari in the free practice sessions, but qualifying was a different story for him. Red Bull are now in contention to upset the Mercedes, and Ferrari seems to be right there as well. Out of all the drivers in the top 10, Jean-Eric Vergne, Hulkenberg and the McLaren boys promise to be the surprise packages. And while rain could have helped the other three drivers, Hulkenberg has put in an impressive show.

After the Friday practice sessions, Force India were one of the few teams to suffer from high degradation on both of the tyres, and the team were set to work in that direction, along with improving the car in terms of balance and grip, and maybe the team did improve on those aspects. However, despite Hulkenberg’s confidence that he’s targeting to hold the position for the race, Force India can go either way; the best bet for them would be wet conditions as they could target the Top 5 as shown by Hulkenberg today. But if it’s dry, Hulk would have a tall order defending his position as the degradation factor could come into play.

By Bala Yogesh