Nico Hülkenberg’s First F1 Points

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On April 4, 2010, Nico Hülkenberg scored the first world championship point of his Formula 1 career by finishing 10th for Williams in the Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang. It was a modest result on the day, worth a single point under the 2010 scoring system, but it became the starting point for one of Formula 1’s more unusual statistical careers.

Hülkenberg’s rookie season is more often remembered for the pole position he took later that year in Brazil, but Malaysia was where his points tally began. The official race result places him 10th after 56 laps, with Jaime Alguersuari just ahead in ninth and Rubens Barrichello, in the other Williams, outside the points in 12th. For Hülkenberg, it was a small breakthrough rather than a headline result, but it mattered because it put him on the board almost immediately in his third grand prix weekend.

Nicolas Hülkenberg

• Races (starts):251
• Wins:0
• Podiums:1
• Pole positions:1
• Fastest laps:2
• Driver of the Day:3
• World titles:0
• Points (total):622

Data source: F1DB (GitHub)

What gives that Sepang finish a longer afterlife is everything that followed. Hülkenberg went on to build a Formula 1 career across hundreds of grands prix and more than 600 career points, while remaining one of the sport’s more statistically awkward figures for much of that time. Formula 1’s driver profile now lists 254 grands prix entered, 622 career points and one podium, which underlines how Malaysia 2010 was the first step in a scoring career that lasted far longer, and looked far stranger, than a single point on a wet-dry afternoon could have suggested.

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