Force India shows potential but also suffers problems
The Force India Formula One Team had a promising start to this weekend's German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring. Giancarlo Fisichella was fifth in the morning's 90 minute practice while Adrian Sutil was sixth in the afternoon. Giancarlo was just 0.7secs from the session's best time, while Adrian was four tenths off, marking the team's most encouraging Friday performance so far to date.
The pair's programme included mandatory system checks and verification of the aero configuration over both long and short runs, plus tyre comparisons.
Unfortunately both drivers' running was limited by separate issues, as Adrian suffered a mechanical problem in the morning that brought his session to a premature end after just six laps. Later in the day Giancarlo was also caught out by the tricky track conditions early on in the second session as he slid wide in sector two and damaged the front of his car in the impact.
With a further one hour's practice planned pre-Qualifying the team will continue its programme tomorrow.
Adrian Sutil (car 20): "It was a good Friday for us that showed some real improvement from previous weekends. Sixth was a good effort from the team and it felt quite good. I think it will be difficult to get into the top 10 tomorrow but I do feel a good Q2 performance would be realistic. Today started off quite difficult when I had a problem in the morning and couldn't get much running in and in the afternoon I also had a small issue with the steering that took a little while to get sorted. We could test a few items though, including the range of tyres here. It's difficult to say at the moment about their performance as it's good at the beginning of the run and then goes a little off in the end so we will see. Plus it's very difficult to judge the weather conditions - it's been typical Eifel weather! It changes every hour, going from very cold to sunshine. As such it's difficult for the hard tyres to warm up but we'll play with the strategy tomorrow to try and make it work for us."
Giancarlo Fisichella (car 21): "I think it was about right for the team today, with both drivers in the top six in either session. The first session for me was quite good with a promising position, but it was quite disappointing in the afternoon. I caught a kerb that was still wet and just spun into the barriers. I think I could have done well in the second session, but it looks encouraging for tomorrow for another Q2."
Dominic Harlow, chief race engineer: "A very cold day here with a constant shower risk and both sessions declared wet, which is quite unusual in July. The car balance was good but the grip on the track was quite low in general. Adrian suffered a couple of unrelated mechanical issues disrupting both sessions but recovered well to carry out some thorough tyre evaluation. Giancarlo had a good FP1 and also showed that the car has some good potential this weekend. Unfortunately he was on track just as a shower wet the track and he had a spin at T10-11. We will now prepare for whatever the Eifel weather can throw at us over the coming weekend! "
