Force India secures P9 and P10 in qualifying
Sahara Force India delivered on the promise shown in practice as Adrian Sutil and Paul Di Resta qualified in ninth and tenth places respectively for tomorrow’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. This should allow the team to secure its 6th place in the constructors' standings.
Adrian Sutil, VJM04/04, P9:
Q1: 1:40.595, Q2: 1:40.205, Q3: 1:40.768
“I’m happy with ninth place today and it was a good session for me. In Q3 we waited a bit longer than planned because we wanted to wait and see what Mercedes did. In the end they decided to go out so I also went out and I did a timed lap. The lap was a little bit compromised because I didn’t get the tyres fully up to temperature, so maybe I could have been a bit higher up. Still, I don’t think we can complain too much because P9 is a fair reflection of our pace at the moment.”
Paul Di Resta, VJM04/02, P10:
Q1: 1:41.604, Q2: 1:40.414, Q3: No time
“Getting two cars in the top ten was the objective today and that’s what we achieved. We made some good progress this morning perfecting the set-up and I was happy with the car in qualifying. Q1 and Q2 went well and we got the job done by getting in the top ten. Our approach to Q3 was to give us the optimum strategy for tomorrow. For the race we are definitely hoping for points because our focus is to maintain our sixth place in the championship. I’m really looking forward to this race because the place looks spectacular at night. It’s also nice to drive in twilight conditions when it’s a bit cooler.”
Dr. Vijay Mallya, Team Principal and Managing Director:
“I’m very pleased with our performance today and with both Sahara Force India cars starting from the fifth row of the grid we are in good shape for tomorrow. It will be an interesting race because we have seen that the tyre degradation here is not that severe, which means we need to think long and hard about how we will use the strategy. With just two races to go we are not underestimating how important it is to score points here to strengthen our grasp on sixth place in the constructors’ championship. I believe we have the speed to do so, but as I’ve said before you never know until it’s in the bag.”
