Q+A with Adrian Sutil

After a difficult qualifying in Valencia Adrian Sutil did a great job on Sunday to secure sixth place. Having made a good start Adrian was running 11th when the safety car came out on the very lap of his scheduled change to prime tyres. After the stops he had moved up to eighth and he subsequently gained a place from Sebastian Buemi in one of the few genuine passing moves of the race.

He then moved up to sixth when Kamui Kobayashi made his late pit stop. Like eight other drivers he received a 5secs penalty for a safety car speeding offence, but it did not change his result.

This was Adrian’s fifth consecutive finish in the points, and his sixth in nine races this year. Force India asked him about his weekend in Spain and prospects for the next race at Silverstone.

How did things go from the start? "I made a good start and it was a crazy first lap. After that I was behind Michael Schumacher. When the safety car came out, I went into the pits. In fact I had the pit call anyway on this lap, so I was coming in, and then in the last few corners the safety car came out."

You gained a few places from the stops. How did things go after that? "After that it was a good race. I pushed Sebastien Buemi around the circuit for quite a long time, but he did really well until he made a mistake. That was my only chance and I took it, I passed him outside into Turn 12. At least I had a little bit of action! Then I just pushed a few laps to get a gap, and I got close to Robert Kubica. I just followed him, I couldn’t really make any attack, as we had the same pace. But in the end P6 was a fantastic result."

Did the result make up for your disappointment on Saturday? "Yes, qualifying 13th was very disappointing. I knew the car was much better, and the pace we had in the race was really good. Sixth position I expected even in qualifying. Maybe it was a little bit of a lucky race, but we finished where we wanted to finish this weekend."

Several teams seemed to have problems making the option tyre work in qualifying. Was that frustrating? "Absolutely, it makes a big difference. I had no problems this year with the tyres, but this time we both struggled quite a lot, and we have to investigate why that happened. For Silverstone we shouldn’t have that problem because it’s much cooler and a different kind of circuit."

England has actually been as hot as Spain this week… "I’m sure when we go racing the clouds will come in like every year, and it will start to rain!"

Obviously Silverstone is the home race for the team, and you’re going there with the best car you’ve ever had. What are your expectations? "Last year we were quite competitive there as well. But yes, this year we are much better and much more consistent. For sure we want to score a lot of points again."

Have you studied the revised circuit yet? "Not really, but I’ll definitely do it this week. It’s nice to have a kind of new circuit on the calendar. Silverstone is a great circuit, and I’m always happy to go there. It shouldn’t be too bad for us."