Disappointing Sepang qualifying for Force India

Sahara Force India showed good pace in today’s Malaysian Grand Prix qualifying as Adrian Sutil qualified in ninth place. Paul Di Resta was caught out by rain showers in Q2 and will start from P15.

P9 Adrian Sutil VJM06-03
Q1: 1:36.809
Q2: 1:36.834
Q3: 1:53.439

Adrian: “It’s a shame that the rain arrived for Q3 because our pace in the dry had been very strong. I’m still not totally confident with these tyres in the wet and the car was sliding around in the corners with too much oversteer. I will hope for a dry race because we have a competitive car and I’m happy with the balance. The target is to try and push to the front tomorrow with a good strategy and come away with points or maybe more.”

P15 Paul Di Resta VJM06-04
Q1: 1:37.493
Q2: 1:44.509

Paul: “Quite a frustrating day because we got caught out by the weather. We’ve looked strong this weekend so felt quite confident heading into qualifying, but the rain arrived earlier than the team expected. Now we need to see what the weather does tomorrow, but I will certainly come back fighting. I’ve got lots of new tyres, which is more than enough to complete the race and the car has been working well here so far.”

Robert Fernley, Deputy Team Principal
“We ended qualifying today feeling a little bit disappointed. Throughout practice we have been very competitive in the dry and Adrian demonstrated that once again during Q1 when he set the fastest time. In Q2 we misjudged the weather with the rain coming in earlier than anticipated, which proved very costly for Paul who didn’t have time to complete his quick lap in the dry. Adrian progressed to Q3 but struggled in the wet conditions and didn’t feel comfortable on the intermediates. Had it been dry, I’m confident he would have been higher up the grid. Going into the race we will keep a close eye on the weather and be pushing hard to get both drivers home in the points.”

Sahara Force India Formula One Team