Another double finish for Force India
The 2008 German Grand Prix at Hockenheim yielded another double finish for the Force India Formula One Team, with Giancarlo Fisichella crossing the line in 14th position and home driver Adrian Sutil in 16th.
The 67 lap race was marked by a heavy crash from Toyota's Timo Glock, which led to the deployment of the safety car on lap 36 and dictated strategy from that point on. Adrian and Giancarlo had been running strongly until the safety car period, racing with eventual podium finisher Piquet, Nakajima and Barrichello. After the first round of stops Adrian was 17th and Giancarlo 19th, within striking distance of the group in front, but the safety car period turned the order on its head.
Force India will now briefly return to its HQ before a three-day test in Jerez next week from Wednesday 23 to Friday 25 July, where it will test its new quick shift gearbox.
Adrian Sutil: "I'm a bit disappointed as I think we had a good race pace but didn't ultimately get anything out of it. We lost some time on the first pit stop and then with the safety car we couldn't pit at the right moment and then couldn't catch up again so I lost 10 seconds or so. In my last stint something didn't feel right in my car, so we will have to investigate what happened, so it was not the best race, but at least we finished it."
Giancarlo Fisichella: "In the first part of the race I was not comfortable with the car as I was struggling with the grip and it was understeering and oversteering with some wheelspin, but then at the end of the run it was getting better. On the soft tyre it was a step forward. The team made a good move for me with the strategy under the safety car and I could make up some places after I pitted and the others went in. I could have finished perhaps one place higher up, but unfortunately I locked up through turn eight and lost a position, but all the same it's nice to get a finish and to be racing again."
Mike Gascoyne, chief technical officer: "After a disappointing qualifying yesterday, once again we had a better race pace and performance. Obviously the strategy was dominated by the safety car and we were able to use it to gain some places. Adrian in the first part of the race had a better pace, but unfortunately the way the safety car period panned out meant he dropped behind Giancarlo but, even so, his pace was excellent throughout and he deserved more. Giancarlo struggled more with the balance but did it well to bring it home, but overall we did the best we could do with our car here today. Unfortunately Giancarlo was handed a 25 second penalty for We now we have to move on and look forward to the test next week where we will use the seamless shift gearbox and can look forward to another step in the races to come."
Dr Vijay Mallya, chairman and managing director: "It was a tough race to call this time out as the safety car period came at a critical moment. For Giancarlo, it worked to his advantage, but unfortunately for Adrian it dropped him down the order. This is - as we always say - racing and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. What I am however clearly very pleased about is that we were racing other cars and staying with them, plus our reliability was very good. This clearly bodes well for the future, and if we succeed in testing and then introducing our new gearbox then we could finish in front of some people on merit."
