Having qualified a promising 12th at Suzuka, Hulkenberg lost out after the red flag as his anti-stall system kicked in during the second start. This dropped him to 17th position before he had the first pitstop of the race, as early as lap five.
However, the German subsequently had two strong stints on hard tyres. He overtook five drivers on the track, including Aston Martin's Lance Stroll in the last lap, on his way to an 11th-place finish, fewer than six seconds off AlphaTauri's Yuki Tsunoda in 10th.
