Qualifying report

Top-ten qualifying for both Sahara Force India drivers at Sakhir

7th fastest time for Di Resta and next for Sutil, but they afore expected to start from fifth and sixth places following penalties for Hamilton and Webber

Sahara Force India carried its strong form into today’s qualifying session for the Bahrain Grand Prix with Paul Di Resta setting the seventh fastest time ahead of teammate Adrian Sutil in eighth. They are expected to start fifth and sixth following grid penalties for Hamilton and Webber.

P7 Paul Di Resta VJM06-04
Q1: 1:33.762
Q2: 1:33.335
Q3: 1:33.235

Adrian Sutil, Sahara Force India VJM06

Photo by: XPB Images

Paul: “We knew we were in good shape to challenge for Q3 today and we looked strong throughout all the sessions. As the tracked gripped up we didn’t quite have the speed we expected, but I’m still pretty happy with what we’ve achieved, especially as I will move up to fifth with the grid penalties. We’re in a great position for tomorrow; the car is strong and our long run performance yesterday gives us every reason to be hopeful of challenging for some good points.”

P8 Adrian Sutil VJM06-03
Q1: 1:34.048
Q2: 1:33.378
Q3: 1:33.246

Adrian: “The car was quite tricky to drive today and the grip level of the track made it difficult to complete the perfect lap. My final lap in Q3 could have been better, but I’m pretty happy with the outcome, especially if I move up to sixth. The track suits us, we like the warm weather and things look promising for tomorrow. It’s a good starting position to have both cars on the third row and we will be looking to move forward in the race.”

Robert Fernley, Deputy Team Principal
“An excellent team effort today brings us our best qualifying performance of the year. We knew we had the pace to get both cars into Q3 and in the end there was very little to choose between Paul and Adrian with just a hundredth of a second separating them. We expect to move up a couple of positions with both cars when the grid penalties are handed out, which puts us in a very strong position for the race. We have no concern with the tyres so the key tomorrow is to hold track position and find some clean air with the strategy so that we can make the most of our strong race pace.”