Saturday: The night dampens Force India’s hopes in Abu Dhabi
After encouraging Free Practice 3 sessions, Sahara Force India drivers had to settle for eleventh and thirteenth positions in qualifying, where the onset of night and the drop in temperatures likely affected the performance level of the VJM05. However, Hülkenberg and Di Resta have more strategic options available and hope to leave Abu Dhabi with valuable points.
Nico Hülkenberg – 5th and 11th:
I was expecting a bit more from today, but it seems our car wasn’t as competitive in cooler temperatures because I was more satisfied during the last practice session under the sun. So, maybe the lower temperatures put us at a disadvantage.
I will start from the eleventh position, just one place away from the points, and I have the choice of tires, so hopefully we can use that to our advantage to come away with points.
Paul di Resta – 10th and 13th:
« I struggled with the balance of the car and it was difficult to drive this weekend, so it was always going to be a complicated qualifying session. Our pace on the long runs didn’t seem too bad, but I just had trouble extracting the ultimate performance from the car.
We remain in a good position to try to score points and I feel comfortable in the new chassis. We will focus on endurance tomorrow because I think it looks like one of those races where the tires will probably last longer than expected.
