Force India fail to score points in Japan

Force India returned empty handed from the Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix here on Sunday after both Adrian Sutil and Paul di Resta failed to earn points for the second consecutive race. The race was, however, won by Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel from teammate Mark Webber and Lotus’ Romain Grosjean. Di Resta, who started in 12th position, finished just outside the points in 11th.

“At the start of the race I didn’t get a good launch and a few cars came by me, and then we lost out at the first pit stop because the Williams of Bottas jumped us. That compromised the second stint, which is why we went very aggressive with an early second stop to get track position and move ahead of the Williams,” said the Briton.

“The car felt better for the final stint and it looked like we were on course for a point. In the end we were about five laps too short with the tyre life because I couldn’t defend. With four races to go we need to take the positives from this weekend and will travel to India determined to get back in the points,” said di Resta, who is 11th in the drivers’ standings with 36 points.

His German teammate Sutil finished further back in 14th. “It’s been a very tough weekend and starting from the back of the grid made it difficult to get close to the points. In the end I finished P14 and had some good battles, but there was a lot of oversteer in the car and it was not easy to be consistent,” said Sutil, who started 22nd and last after receiving a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change.

“The best part of the race was the start because I moved up to P16, but we just didn’t have the race pace we needed today and couldn’t get the performance from the tyres,” added Sutil, who is 12th with 26 points. Force India lie sixth in the constructors’ standings with 62 points. The Formula 1 bandwagon now travels to India for the next Grand Prix from Oct 25-27.

IANS