Force India hopeful for coming race after strong Silverstone showing
Force India's Giancarlo Fisichella put in a faultless drive to tenth position in today's British Grand Prix. An impressive early stint, bold overtaking moves and an aggressive pit stop strategy moved the Italian six places from his starting position to end the race under two seconds from a points-scoring eighth position.
Giancarlo gained two positions on the first lap and overtook two further cars in Stowe corner on his second. He then lapped at the same pace as the top ten, right on the tail of Toyota's Timo Glock. A long first stint gave Giancarlo a chance to put in a series of quick laps and he was fourth by lap 19 after the first round of pit stops began. When he eventually pitted on lap 21, Giancarlo was able to leapfrog Glock for tenth. A second stop for hard tyres on lap 45 allowed him to take Nakajima as well, but he unfortunately lost a position to Glock when rejoining the track. Giancarlo closed the gap back to under a second but couldn't find a way past in the closing laps, finishing the race yet again within sight of the points.
Adrian Sutil started the race from the pit lane following yesterday's qualifying accident. The team elected for a one-stop strategy and Adrian was able to reclaim three positions to finish 17th overall. For a second race in succession he enjoyed a close battle with Lewis Hamilton, finishing just over a second from the reigning world champion.
Adrian Sutil (car 20): "We rebuilt the spare car after the crash yesterday caused too much damage to my race car, but then we had a problem on the formation lap with the fuel pressure. We could fix it and at least start but it was really disappointing today. We missed a big opportunity to qualify well because of the crash and the race was not spectacular as a result. I was really just driving around without much chance of overtaking anyone so it was a little boring, but it's another finish at least. Let's move onto Germany where I hope I can really take advantage of the new parts we had this weekend."
Giancarlo Fisichella (car 21): "A top 10 finish was our target this weekend. We thought it would be difficult but actually today was a very good race for me and we achieved the maximum we could do. It was a fun race. I had a good start and then on the first lap I overtook many drivers and even on the second lap I overtook Kubica and the two Renaults, so I was very focussed at the beginning. It was very important with my strategy to do this as we didn't have such a great starting position because of the red flag yesterday in qualifying. Perhaps we could have scored points if we'd started higher as eighth was just in front of me and at the end I was quicker than Kimi (Raikkonen) and Timo (Glock). It's a great step forward and I'm really looking forward to the next races now. The team did a fantastic job so we need to continue this."
Dr Vijay Mallya, chairman and team principal: "It was a very impressive race performance today from Force India. We had our fair share of bad luck in qualifying yesterday with Adrian's shunt, which unfortunately ruined Fisi's lap as well. Who knows, if we had started further up the grid as we had hoped maybe points would have been in reach today. Nevertheless I am very happy both cars finished: reliability is good, we're competitive and keeping pace with all the others and we beat some top teams as well. Obviously I am delighted that we are getting there, slowly but steadily. I'm very hopeful for the next few races."
Adrian Sutil (car 20, VJM02/01):
17th: 1:23:53.434 (+ 1 lap)
Giancarlo Fisichella (car 21, VJM02/04):
10th: 1:24:00.850 (+71.522)
