Saturday: Force India aims for points in the race

Adrian Sutil – 10th:

The car worked well all weekend and I felt that we had a good chance of making it to Q3 today. But I knew we had to do the perfect lap. That’s why this result is excellent because I extracted the maximum from the car.

«We did not go out in Q3 because we thought it was better to save a set of soft tires for the race. Moreover, in Q2, we saw that Heidfeld was two-tenths ahead, so it would be difficult to do better than tenth place. It’s a good position, but it’s the race that counts, so let’s hope we can convert that into points tomorrow.»

Paul di Resta – 12th:

After the problem we had during free practice, I knew I would be a bit behind today since I had only completed three laps yesterday. But we tried to do our best.

In my last lap in Q2, I was in the process of improving and I made a small mistake in turn 17. I missed a gear change and went wide, which caused me to lose the advantage I had gained at the beginning of the lap. I will start from 12th place, which is not bad considering what happened this weekend.

« I remain positive and I think we can fight for the points here. The only unknown is that I haven’t done long stints with a lot of fuel, and it’s hard to know where to start with the aero balance or when to conserve the tires. We will try to do the maximum with what we know. »

Vijay Mallya:

The performance in this qualifying session confirms the progress we have made recently with the development of the VJM04. Seeing Adrian in the top 10 ahead of a Renault is a huge effort and probably the maximum we could hope for today.

The car has been competitive since the start of testing and it is satisfying to see this pace translated into a good starting position.

Paul also did an excellent job after losing track time yesterday. Qualifying 12th shows how well the team worked to recover from a difficult situation. For tomorrow, we will fight and hope to bring some points home.