Force India Abu Dhabi GP race report

Both Sahara Force Indias finished in the points today as Adrian Sutil raced to an excellent eighth position just ahead of teammate Paul Di Resta in ninth, securing six valuable championship points for the team.

Adrian Sutil, Force India

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P8 Adrian Sutil, VJM04/04

Tyre strategy: Used soft, new soft, new medium

Adrian: “Today’s result is great for the team and just what we needed. Initially we were planning to do a one-stop race, but the team took the decision to switch to a two-stop strategy because the soft tyre did not last as long as we thought it would. So it was a good call by the team to make the change. I spent a lot of the race fighting with Schumacher and managed to get ahead of him for the middle stint.

But I probably went one lap too long in the middle stint and he got ahead of me when we were both on the medium tyre at the end of the race. I was close behind him, but we had similar pace and I couldn’t get back ahead. Still, we came here to pick up points with both cars, and that’s what we’ve done. It puts us in a very strong position for the final race.”

Paul di Resta, Force India F1 Team

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P9 Paul Di Resta, VJM04/02

Tyre strategy: New medium, new soft

Paul: “I think as a team we can be pleased to have come away with a double points finish having run different strategies with both cars. With hindsight my one-stop race was not the optimum strategy, but we felt it was worth a try. As it turned out the performance of the medium was not great to begin with so the first 30 laps were quite hard work.

I had a good fight with Buemi in the early laps and I think we were quite lucky that he retired, which made my race a bit easier. When I switched to the softs the speed of the car was very strong. To do a one-stop race and come away with two points is as much as we could really hope for. It’s what we need for our fight in the championship and hopefully we can arrive in Brazil and carry on where we left off.”

Dr. Vijay Mallya, Team Principal and Managing Director

“We came here determined to deliver a strong result and we’ve come away with six important points to consolidate our sixth place in the constructors’ championship. Both drivers drove faultless races, splitting the strategies and covering all the options. So I’m very pleased with our performance as a team, which puts us in a much stronger position with 15 points advantage over our nearest competitor. I feel confident that we can go to Brazil to finish the job and confirm our sixth place in the championship.”