Force India loses out on raw pace
Sahara Force India picked up two hard-earned points in today’s German Grand Prix as Nico Hulkenberg finished in ninth place. The team failed to hold up to the promising qualifying as was somewhat expected. Paul Di Resta just missed out on points in 11th.
Nico Hulkenberg, VJM05/03, P9:
Tyre strategy: New soft, new medium, new soft, new medium
“We always knew it was going to be tough to hang on to fourth place because we did not look especially strong in the dry conditions on Saturday morning. But when you’re in that position you hope for the best and actually the first part of the race was strong for me and I had some good battles. In terms of strategy, doing three stops was the way forward because a two-stop race was not possible with the way the tyres were degrading. So it’s good to come away with some points but I was certainly hoping for a bit more from my home race.”
Paul Di Resta, VJM05/02, P11:
Tyre strategy: New soft, new medium, new medium
“A tough race today and ultimately we didn’t have the pace to match teams like Lotus and Sauber. The story of the race was deciding whether to stop two or three times and with hindsight we probably could have been more aggressive. But it was hard to understand the tyres and we seemed to struggle for pace in the middle of each stint. I think we have the baseline speed in the car but we just couldn’t demonstrate it today and that’s why I missed out on points. Hopefully we can find the sweet spot next weekend before the summer break.”
Dr Vijay Mallya, Team Principal & Managing Director:
“Two important points scored today, but we were hoping for more considering our strong starting positions. We split the strategies with Nico stopping three times and Paul doing a two-stop race, and there was little to choose between them in the end. Both drivers battled hard, but it was difficult to defend on such an open track where it is easy to overtake. With today’s result we have moved within a point of Williams in the championship and hopefully we can continue our points run in Hungary next weekend.”
