Force India looking for strong finish at Bahrain

Bahrain, 21 April 2012: The only Indian outfit in the Formula One World Championship headed by liquor baron Vijay Mallya and co-owned by the Sahara Group has managed to stay afloat in the first three races of the season but failed to come up with anything substantial as the mid-level teams have made enough developments to the car. However, Sahara Force India delivered a strong showing in Bahrain’s Saturday qualifying session with Paul Di Resta qualifying in tenth place and teammate Nico Hulkenberg lined up in P13.

The VJM05, the fifth edition of the Force India car was lucky to get into points for Paul at the first race of the season in Australia and the teams did manage to sustain the car in adverse conditions and a double finish at the rain-hit Malaysian Grand Prix on March 25 boosted the confidence of both the drivers and the team. The third race, at Shanghai in China failed to get any points for the Indian team and though the cars were getting the race pace, the team need to bring in more developments, if they have to mount a good challenge to the mid-teams, if they have to retain the sixth place in the Constructors’ Championship this year.

Paul di Resta, who set a time of 1 min 33.510 seconds in the qualifying after a slower 1:34.624 in Q1 did not take to Q3 to save tyres and the enginre as the team was satisfied with a tenth place on the gird.  “I’m very happy with our qualifying performance today. With our reduced programme on Friday, it wasn’t easy getting all the work done but the team did a good job to get the car dialled into the track before qualifying. I had a great lap in Q2, just three tenths away from the quickest time but in Q3 we all took the decision from a strategic point of view to save tyres. I think this will put us in the best shape for tomorrow and I hope we can deliver a strong race.”

The other young driver, Nico Hulkenberg who joined the team this year exuded confidence too. He did 1 minute 34.601 seconds in Q1 to improve to 1:33.807 in Q2 for a 13th place on the grid. The German who was in Bangalore last Tuesday to watch a cricket match said from Bahrain: “It has been a very busy day for us, but we learned a lot this morning and improved the car all the way through to qualifying where we showed some good speed. My Q2 lap was looking very strong until the final sector where I got some oversteer and ran wide, which cost me a few tenths. Otherwise I think we could have had both cars in the top ten. But I’m still pretty pleased and I feel that we can fight for points tomorrow.”

Robert Fernley, the Deputy Team Principal, who virtually heads the technical running of the team was happy with the teamwork ahead of the controversial Bahrain race as they did not have enough time after the back-to-back race with the Chinese Grand Prix the previous Sunday. He said: “I think the whole team has delivered an impressive performance today, which leaves us in a competitive position heading into the race. We worked hard at improving the car between final practice and qualifying, and I think the track conditions came to us as well. Paul’s pace in Q2 shows the potential we have in the car and allowed him to reach Q3 for the first time this year, which was a tremendous effort. Nico was close to joining him too, but a small mistake cost him some time in the final part of the lap. We are now looking forward to the race and building on today’s showing to help put on a great spectacle for Bahrain.”

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