Force India Belgian GP - Spa qualifying report

It was a disappointing afternoon for Force India as Adrian Sutil qualified in P15 following a crash at the top of Eau Rouge. Teammate Paul Di Resta will line up in P18 following a spin.

P15 Adrian Sutil (VJM04/04) - Q1: 2:06.000 - Q2 2:07.777

Adrian: “What happened today is such a shame because the car has felt so good during practice. Q1 was quite straightforward for me, but in Q2 I made a little mistake on the exit of Eau Rouge.

Adrian Sutil, Force India F1 Team

Photo by: xpb.cc

I ran a bit wide, touched the kerb and the rear of the car went away from me and sent me into the barrier. It was not a very big impact, but it damaged the front and left side of my car. I think without this we could have qualified in a very strong position. Tomorrow we expect the conditions to be drier and we know that anything can happen in the race – especially at Spa. So I will try not to be too disappointed today and concentrate on doing a good job tomorrow.”

P18 Paul Di Resta (VJM04/02) - Q1: 2:07.758

Paul: “Starting P18 is not what I had in mind for my first Belgian Grand Prix. We chose to go out at the start of Q1 and sat out the middle part so that we could make the most of the track conditions at the end of the session. Unfortunately it started raining again and I got caught out at the chicane and spun on what would have been my quickest lap.

Paul di Resta, Force India F1 Team

Photo by: xpb.cc

On the next lap the team called me in thinking the track was wet and that we were safe, but when I got back to the pits they told me that Kovalainen had gone quicker, which knocked me out of qualifying. It’s really frustrating because there was a lot more to come and we could have been much further up the grid. Fortunately Spa is a track where you can overtake so we have plenty of work to do tomorrow to try and move through the pack.”

Dr. Vijay Mallya, Chairman & Team Principal

“Today’s qualifying session was extremely disappointing. We came here full of optimism and our performance during practice gave us every reason to believe we were in a position to get both cars in the top ten.

But the classic Spa weather can always make these sessions unpredictable and today we have been caught out. Paul made a small mistake at the chicane on his penultimate lap in Q1 when the rain returned and we called him in on the next lap because the rain was getting heavier. It looked as though he would still squeeze through to Q2, but he got knocked out in the final moments. As for Adrian, he made a mistake through Eau Rouge in Q2 and damaged his car. It’s not the session we hoped for, but we will come back tomorrow and fight hard to move forward and score some points.