Gabriel Bortoleto concedes ‘tricky’ start cost him in Japan while Nico Hulkenberg reflects on ‘frustrating’ Suzuka outing

As for Hulkenberg, the German was another who could not make much progress through the field on Sunday. He was on the same medium-hard tyre strategy as the majority of the field, and came home behind the Alpine of Doohan.

“The car didn’t feel too bad today, and I would have liked the chance to explore its full potential a bit more,” Hulkenberg said afterwards. “But Suzuka is a track where overtaking is notoriously difficult, and that really defined the race.

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“I spent most of the time in traffic, which made it hard to make any real progress and ultimately turned it into a fairly uneventful race. That’s obviously a bit frustrating.

“We know there’s still work to do – both in terms of overall pace and car characteristics – and today’s race underlined that once again. It‘s still early in the season and we continue to learn with every race weekend.”