Sunday: Sutil and Force India score two points
Force India confirms its good form and strong weekend by scoring two points through Adrian Sutil.
Adrian Sutil – 9th
Finishing ninth is very good, and I’m delighted that we managed to get the maximum out of the car throughout the weekend. I had a good start: I passed Heidfeld and was able to follow Schumacher during my first stint. I pushed hard, but there was no opportunity to pass him. Mid-race, I had a clear track, a good race pace, and we moved up to eighth position. After the last stop, I came out behind Alguersuari, who was on a two-stop strategy. I tried everything I could to overtake him, but the DRS zone didn’t make overtaking very easy, and I had to settle for ninth position. The car was enjoyable to drive today, and I’m really happy with this result for the whole team.
Paul di Resta – 14th
« I’m not certain that we opted for the best strategy today. During two laps in my first stint, my tires degraded, and we didn’t stop early enough. We managed to recover from this mistake during the second stop when I passed Heidfeld and Barrichello, but I lost everything on the last stop. It’s difficult when the tires degrade because it costs you around 2.5 seconds per lap, which is a lot when the midfield battle is so tight. Even without these issues, it would have been tough to score points today because overtaking was harder than I thought, even with the DRS. It’s not the best weekend, but I’m going to put this behind me and focus on my home race at Silverstone ».
Vijay Mallya
« The two points scored by Adrian are welcome after a very good weekend on our part. The car worked very well from the start of the trials, and Adrian didn’t make a single mistake. My only frustration is that we couldn’t contain Alguersuari’s Toro Rosso, who managed to get ahead of Adrian thanks to a two-stop strategy. Paul once again delivered a fighting race, but he was unlucky with the strategy. This shows us that stopping even one lap too late can be very costly in terms of track positions. We leave Valencia delighted to be back in the points and determined to continue our momentum at Silverstone, a familiar track for our factory and a race that everyone loves ».
