'Proud' Sutil happy with hard tyre choice
Adrian Sutil believes Force India can be very proud of qualifying in the top-10 for the season-opening race and reckons it could enjoy an even better race thanks to its decision to qualify on hard tyres.
The German driver confirmed the promise the much-improved Silverstone-based squad had shown with its VJM03 in pre-season by qualifying 10th at Sakhir the best starting position the team in any of its guises has achieved at the first race of the campaign since 2002.
I'm very happy, said Sutil.
I think it was a great achievement to go into Q3 at the first race: our best start to the season for a long time.
The team should be very proud of it, I am very proud of this, so let's see how it goes tomorrow.
Our goal is now to finish in the points.
Although the ban on mid-race refuelling for 2010 has meant Q3 has once again come down to a straight low-fuel shootout, a strategic element remains for teams in the final segment as the top-10 runners all have to start on the tyres they set their final qualifying lap on.
Sutil admits he was surprised to be the only one to chose the harder compound tyres and thinks this may prove to be an inspired decision over what is set to be a challenging 49-lap race as drivers manage tyre wear in the hot conditions.
At the moment I'm in tenth and hopefully we can make one or two positions up as I'm the only car on the hard tyre so it may be an advantage, he said.
I'm surprised that the others were on the soft tyres so our decision could pay off tomorrow.
We are strong under heavy fuel loads but we were very fast in Q1 and Q2 when everyone was on soft tyres so there are a few more positions we could gain.
We worked very hard over the winter and over the last four years and it's nice to see it giving dividends now.
Team-mate Tonio Liuzzi couldn't quite match Sutil's efforts in making the final phase, but the Italian nevertheless starts just two places back in 12th and is too eyeing a points finish.
However, he was still disappointed to miss out on a first Q3 appearance for the team blaming traction problems for why he couldn't get the best out of the VJM03.
I am a bit disappointed as we didn't know what had happened to the car since free practice, said Liuzzi, who finished ninth quickest in final practice.
In the morning it seemed to have a pretty good balance and we didn't change very much but then we went into qualifying and we had a problem with the traction.
That was the main reason we couldn't go through to Q3.
Now we have to work on this and understand what happened but we believe in the race that we should be really strong as yesterday we were quick on the longer runs.
Team boss Vijay Mallya expressed his delight with the progress his squad continues to make and, like Sutil, feels it could be in a position to pick off cars starting on the super-soft tyres in the first phase of the race.
I think the whole team can be very proud of this result; it's a great start to the season and a mark of how much progress we have made over the winter, the Indian said.
Last season we didn't get through to Q2 in this race and this year we've got both cars in the top 12.
Of course that's not a precursor to getting points, which is what really matters, but it does give us a much better chance.
Particularly positive is that Adrian is starting the race on the harder tyre, unlike the rest of the top 10, so should be well-placed to capitalise as the softer tyre degrades in the warm conditions. I can't wait for tomorrow's race now!
Date published : 13 Mar 2010 - 15:13:09
