Force India just tenths away from Q2
The Force India Formula One Team will start tomorrow's Malaysian Grand Prix, the second race of the 2009 F1 season, with Giancarlo Fisichella and Adrian Sutil in 18th and 19th positions respectively. The duo were evenly matched over the day, also posting the two fastest speeds down the straight, and were just tenths from making the cut into Q2.
For the second consecutive event qualifying produced a very close and relatively surprising grid, and Giancarlo will start just behind the Ferrari of Felipe Massa and the Renault of Nelson Piquet.
The 56 lap race will start at 17:00hrs local time tomorrow.
Adrian Sutil (car 20): 'We did a good job today, we had no problems and this was our pace - we couldn't really have done better. We just need to find some downforce. For tomorrow, I want to have a good race and to get to the finish. We are very quick down the straights and there is some potential for overtaking so let's see - we had an exciting race in Melbourne and anything can happen. I am still positive.'
Giancarlo Fisichella (car 21): 'I had a problem with the throttle pedal on the first run so we changed it and I lost the chance to do three runs, which was very important. The lap I did was clean and the car is well balanced. Again the field is very mixed and with the chance of some rain we should look to keep up with the field and take any chance we can.'
Dominic Harlow, chief race engineer: 'It was a tense session today with a constant threat of heavy showers, but they didn't materialise. Giancarlo lost some track time with a throttle pedal problem, but recovered well to place a time just 0.05s faster than Adrian. We're expecting an interesting race tomorrow and we know from last weekend that our race pace coupled with strong straightline speed and a creative strategy could be good enough to score points.'
Adrian Sutil (car 20, VJM02/03):
FP3: 17th 1:37.118 (18 laps)
Q1: 19th 1:35.951 (10 laps)
Giancarlo Fisichella (car 21, VJM02/01):
FP1: 20th 1:37.398 (19 laps)
Q1: 18th 1:35.908 (8 laps)
