Q+A with Adrian Sutil
After a frustrating qualifying session a strong race in Monaco saw Force India’s Adrian Sutil finish ninth on the road, before moving up to eighth when Michael Schumacher was penalised. The result leaves him a clear 10th in the World Championship – just two points behind Schumacher. The Force India squad spoke to Adrian about his Monaco weekend and the next round in Turkey.
In the end you left Monaco with an eighth place. Were you happy with that? "It was a good race, I think. We did everything OK, we had a good start and a good pit stop, and good race pace. That was the most we could have done, so I’m happy."
You were obviously aiming at Q3, so was it frustrating to start only 12th? "I missed three or four positions in qualifying. It’s always a shame if you can’t really perform as you should have done because of some incident or traffic or whatever. I didn’t get a clear lap at all, I had three tries and it was always traffic. I was hoping for a good race and where we finished was probably where we should have been after qualifying. Always when you start closer the front, you race closer to the front, especially in Monaco."
How did the start go for you? "Nico Hulkenberg, who was right next to me, didn’t arrive on the grid, so the space was empty. I had a quite good start, and had a comfortable position at the first corner. I passed Jenson Button, who had some problems and was tenth at the end of the first lap, two places up from where I started."
You spent a lot of time behind Tonio, and then passed him with a later stop. Did that work out as planned? "I was behind him and a few other cars, and I just stayed out because I knew my tyres were good, and I could push for another few laps. I actually passed both of them, Tonio and Rubens Barrichello. I managed that pretty well, and then I was in P9. After that it was just a steady race, I had a gap to the car in front and the car behind so it was a bit lonely. P9 was OK, but it was nice to get P8 in the end!”
Was it hard to keep up a rhythm with all the safety cars? "There were quite a lot of safety car periods. You always try to make a gap, and then it’s all gone again. But for me it was OK, because I had no pressure from behind."
Are you looking forward to the next race in Turkey? "We’re back to a normal type of circuit. Turkey is a good track, I like it, and we should be quite good there. Our car is very similar everywhere, so I don’t expect any difficulties there, we should have a good balance. It’s mostly fast corners, with a slow last sector, and a few second gear corners. There’s a long straight where you need some top speed."
Are you pleased to have been scoring so regularly so far? "Yes, consistency is important in a long championship of 19 races. If you score a few points everywhere and you increase your total, you have a chance at the end. At the moment that’s what I’m doing and it’s turned out really well."
