Force India gets six points to stay sixth

Round 18 of 2011 Formula 1 World Championship at Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi, 13 Nov 2011:

(By Special Correspondent)

Tyre strategy: New medium, new soft

It was a great race for Sahara Force India with Adrian Sutil and Paul di Resta finishing eighth and ninth respectively even as Lewis Hamilton of McLaren provided an early birthday present to his mom with a brilliant win at the Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at the Yas Marina Circuit on Sunday. Hamilton got his third win of the season and seventh podium in the Formula One World Championship, this season as 2011 drivers’ champion and favourite Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull retired early with a puncture  as “he caught the exit kerb wrong with low tyre pressure that cut his right rear tyre”.

As far as the teams and drivers are concerned, the only Indian presence on the race day for the 18th round of the 19-round F1 season was the Sahara Force India team. With both the Indian drivers Narain Karthikeyan and Karun Chandhok not on the starting grid, it was left to Force India to fight for honours and with a great startegy both the cars finished in points gaining valuable points to keep themselves in the sixth place in the constructors’ championship.

Adrian Sutil, who started on 8th place was on soft tyres, which are a second faster per lap than the Dry tyres of Paul d’ Resta. As he did not start the Qualifier 3 on Saturday, Paul had the option to use either of the tyres and the team went with a single-stop strategy to come out successfully.

In the 9th lap, even as Sutil was pushing Michael Schumaker, Paul di Resta was pressurised by Sebestian Buemi, who took eighth place but Di Resta regained the lost ground quickly in the next DRS zone and soon in the 14th lap Buemi once again used the first DRS zone to pass Paul, who however made it a short-lived joy for the Toro Rosso in the second DRS zone, but in the very next lap Paul made a mistake in Turn 11 but that did not prove costly as Buemi retired soon due to a loss of fluid from the hydraulic system. Paul di Resta went on till 28th lap for his first pit stop and his sustained run despite traction problems saw his finish in the 9th place for two valuable points with his single pit-stop strategy on medium dry tryes.

Adrian Sutil, could not challenge Schumacher any further after the initial jaunt and was content in retaining his position after two pits to go steady for a well-deserved four points. 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.”

With only the Brazil Grand Prix left in the season, Sahara Force India – Mercedes are well on course for the sixth position in the Constructors Championship with 57 points 15 points ahead of Sauber Ferrari on 42 who just managed to pip STR Ferrari by a point after Abu Dhabi. Adrian Sutil (10/11th) has 34 points, the same as fellow German Nick Hiedfeld while the young British driver Paul Di Resta has 23 points in the 14th place.