Force India faces uphill battle to take points at Singapore
Qualifying at the Marina Bay circuit saw Sahara Force India drivers Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez qualify in P13 and P15 respectively for tomorrow’s Singapore Grand Prix.
Nico Hulkenberg, VJM07-04, 13th: “The qualifying hour in Singapore is always intense and stressful, but I was hoping to be a bit more competitive and squeeze into the top ten. As it turned out, a place in Q3 was a few tenths away, but my lap was pretty good. I feel quite positive about the race because I have a free choice on tyres for the start and Singapore is always a long and eventful race. There are a few strategy options because yesterday we saw a lot of tyre degradation on both the compounds. The target is to come away with points tomorrow.”
Sergio Perez, VJM07-02, 15th: “The track felt very different today and we were not expecting such a dramatic change coming into qualifying. As the session went on, we struggled to get the tyres to work in the way we wanted. We headed out early in Q2 to try and get a clean out lap and prepare the tyres, but obviously we knew this would give away something in terms of performance with the track evolution. Even with these choices, we weren't able to make the progress we wanted. Looking at the race we know that overtaking on this circuit is quite difficult, but with a good start and a strong strategy we can make up some places. This track is very harsh in terms of tyre degradation and I expect it to play a big part tomorrow. It will be a battle to get some good points, but on a track like this everything is possible.”
Vijay Mallya, Team Principal & Managing Director: “We were expecting to be a little higher up the grid today. Our starting positions tomorrow mean we will need to work a bit harder to score the points we need. However, I feel quite positive about our long run pace, which should allow us to race competitively. Singapore usually throws up opportunities to explore different strategies and we enjoy racing in the heat. We need to be ready to maximise the opportunities that come up in the race with the goal of getting both cars in the points.”
