Force India continues strong qualifying pace
Sahara Force India continued to show strong form in Sao Paulo as Nico Hulkenberg qualified in seventh place for tomorrow’s Brazilian Grand Prix. Paul Di Resta will line up in 11th place for what is possible to be a wet Brazilian race.
Nico Hulkenberg, VJM05/03:
Q: 1:13.206, 7th
“It was an entertaining qualifying hour and it actually reminded me of 2010 with the rain shower just before the session. The track dried up quite quickly and the car felt good – we definitely improved it more between practice and qualifying. So seventh place is not too bad and is probably about what we were expecting. For tomorrow we are in good shape: I’ve got quite a neutral set-up so we can cope with whatever weather we get. It’s always a tough race, quite physical, and there are some fast cars around us, but we should have the pace to race strongly.”
Paul Di Resta, VJM05/04:
Q: 1:14.121, 11th
“I was very happy with the car this morning and so we didn’t change anything before qualifying. However, the track went away from us during qualifying, probably because of the rain shower, and I didn’t feel quite as comfortable as this morning. Q1 was quite straightforward and we looked strong in Q2, but my quickest lap was compromised slightly by traffic with Kobayashi recovering onto the track. I think that made the difference between making the top ten. I tried to do another lap, but I had used the best of the tyres. I think P11 still puts in a reasonable position to do something tomorrow. We have the choice on tyres, but obviously it depends on what the weather does.”
Robert Fernley, Deputy Team Principal:
“We looked competitive in the lead up to qualifying and knew we had a good chance of getting both cars into Q3. The rain shower shortly before the session added some excitement to Q1 and it turned out to be a fairly frantic 20 minutes. By the time Q2 got underway the track was pretty much dry, but with conditions improving all the time it was important to run a lot of laps and be on track at the end of the session. Paul was a tenth away from making Q3, but Nico was able to match the pace he showed in final practice and made the cut. Seventh place is a fair reflection of our competitiveness and should allow us to end the season on a positive note.”
