Hulkenberg Did the Fewest Mistakes of 2010 F1 Season

Although he has been ousted by Frank Williams at the end of the 2010 Formula One season, his maiden campaign in the series, German driver Nico Hulkenberg has at least one thing he can be proud of. While only second in the Best Rookie of the Year classification to Japanese driver Kamui Kobayashi, Hulkenberg was the driver to record fewer mistakes than any of his competitors this year. And that includes all the drivers in the 2010 roster.

According to an evaluation made by Germany's Auto Motor und Sport, the number of mistakes made by Hulkenberg throughout the last year's campaign with Williams F1 Team was two (the figure refers to incidents in practice, qualifying and race, as a result of which his car was damaged or he was unable to return to the pits).

The second place in that unofficial table was taken by former Brawn GP teammates Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello, now driving for McLaren Mercedes and Williams respectively. Curiously enough, title contenders Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber each made no less than 30 such mistakes, while eventual title winner was only ranked 13th, with 34 mistakes.

What's even more intriguing is that the 2010 Rookie of the Year, the aforementioned Kobayashi, was ranked the last in this classification, having recorded... well, not more, no less than 60 driving errors. Of course, most of you know the guy under his nickname “kamikaze”, so the fact that his aggressive technique got him into last place surprises very few.

“If I was a kamikaze driver, I would not have got this far,” insisted the 24-year-old in a recent interview with spox.com.

McLaren Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton and Renault's Vitaly Petrov were also classified in the bottom of the mistake-related standings, as was 7-time world champion and F1 returnee Michael Schumacher (18th place).