Q+A with Vitantonio Liuzzi
In Malaysia Tonio Liuzzi joined Force India team mate Adrian Sutil in Q3 for the first time this year, but sadly a technical glitch forced the Italian out when he was heading for a finish in the points. Tonio was asked about the progress at Force India and the next race in Shanghai by the Force India press office.
Malaysia brought a retirement but you were looking good at the time. What are your thoughts on the race? "It was disappointing, because it was another possibility to score points. We had a good start and from 10th we went to eighth into the first corner. I got stuck behind Hulkenberg, who was struggling a lot with the rear tyres, but from my pace within two or three laps I was able to pass him. So it would have been another strong race, as we had a strong pace. Then Schumacher stopped and that put me seventh, but then we had an electronic problem that cut the throttle, and that was basically the end of the race. Without that I’m pretty sure we could have finished maybe seventh or eighth. Hamilton had quite a good pace, but my pace was good enough to keep Massa and Jenson behind. It’s frustrating that we had the problem, as a few more points would have been good."
Both cars made the top 10 in qualifying for the first time this year. Was that pleasing? "We achieved our target, yes. I was a bit disappointed as on the last lap of Q3 we had problem with front locking and going into Turn One I had a big lock-up of the front, and I lost my chance. I was 10th, but Q3 was our target, and we achieved it, even though we’re never satisfied when that happens!"
You didn’t finish but Adrian had a great fifth place, and held off Lewis Hamilton. Are you encouraged by the way the team keeps scoring? "Definitely, as I mentioned before if I had finished the race I would have scored some points which would have been good for the team. This time it didn’t work for me, but it worked for Adrian, and it’s another strong result for all of us. It’s important, because our target since the beginning was to fight for the fifth place in the World Championship. It’s difficult because Renault is making big steps forward every race, but we keep on trying. To do this we need to finish with both cars every time, and that is our target now."
You watched most of the race from the garage. What did you learn about strategies and so on? "It was quite interesting, the fact that the big guys started from the back, and they started with hard tyres. It helped us to start with the softer tyres, and do the pit stop at the right time. It was pretty clear that when McLaren and Ferrari put the soft tyres they were struggling with graining, which we had at the beginning of the race. It worked out pretty well for us with the strategy as Lewis was struggling to overtake Adrian. Overall I think it has been a very positive race for Force India and we have to keep on going this way."
