Difficult Brazilian weekend for Force India
Force India has finished today's Brazilian Grand Prix in 12th position with Adrian Sutil. Adrian moved up 10 places from his grid slot after a strong first stint on the harder tyres and a change to the options under the safety car period at two third's distance. After pulling off one of the most exciting overtaking moves of the race on Sebastien Buemi on lap 61, Adrian passed the flag in 12th.
Following a long battle with the Ferrari of Felipe Massa, Tonio Liuzzi retired from the race on lap 49 in an accident in the first corner complex. Tonio was fortunately uninjured in the impact.
Adrian Sutil (car 14): "An exciting race today and I really enjoyed it. After a reasonable start, I did the first part of the race on the harder tyres and it worked really well. I thought it would be difficult with the graining but after 20 laps the car just seemed to work better and better and I could set some competitive lap times. Then the safety car went out and we changed to the softer compound straight away. Then I tried to move up some places, but it was very hard to pass the Toro Rossos as they were unbelievably quick on the straight. I managed to pass at least Buemi and gain one position. From P22 on the grid I think P12 is very positive and I'm happy with that result and performance."
Tonio Liuzzi (car 15): "It was a good race until the accident, we were able to fight with a lot of cars. It was tough on the option tyres at the start but then in the middle part of the race I was able to put in some consistent and quick lap times. Unfortunately I had been struggling with the brakes all race and then going into the second corner something on the car let go and I couldn't turn in. The car just went straight on and into the barriers. We'll look into why this happened and make sure we understand the reasons fully. I'm OK after the accident though and am now looking forward to Abu Dhabi where I hope we can take the fight back to Williams."
Otmar Szafnauer, chief operating officer: "First of all, we must extend our congratulations to Red Bull on securing their first-ever constructors' championship. For us, we knew this would be a difficult race and to come away with 12th is a good effort considering our starting positions. Adrian again showed our strong race pace and Tonio put in lap times that matched those of the top ten until his retirement. Thankfully he is OK after the accident, and we'll look into the reason for this. We've got another race coming up very soon and although it's going to be a tough week with the travelling, we're going to keep fighting until the end."
