Sutil fined (Force India race review)

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Sixth place for Vitantonio Liuzzi equalled the best result of his F1 career. But team mate Adrian Sutil had a race to forget.

Adrian Sutil Vitantonio Liuzzi
Qualifying position 14 17
Qualifying time comparison (Q1) 1’38.572 (-0.383) 1’38.955
Race position 6
Laps 46/55 55/55
Pit stops 1 1

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Adrian Sutil

Salvaged 14th in a difficult qualifying session as Force India continue to struggle with tyre warm-up.

He had brake trouble during the race, leading the stewards to fine him $10,000 for not retiring his car. Sutil went off on the second racing lap trying to pass Nico Hulkenberg, and more scrapes followed.

He changed to intermediates on lap 28 and spun shortly afterwards, without losing any places.

On lap 36 he passed Nick Heidfeld, then dived down the inside of Jenson Button, causing both to run wide and allowing Heidfeld past again.

He re-took Heidfeld on the next lap but then went off at turn four trying to pass Kamui Kobayashi, falling back behind both the Saubers once more. Jaime Alguersuari also got past him.

Sutil demoted Alguersuari at turn one on lap 42. Five laps later he was past Heidfeld for the third time and trying to find a way past Kobayashi. He tried to send the VJM03 down a very tight gap, lost control and whacked the Sauber, damaging his front-right wheel and ending his race.

In addition to the fine the stewards docked him five places on the grid for the Brazilian Grand Prix for causing an avoidable accident:

I was just struggling with my brakes all the time. I had so much brake force that I always locked up and it was hard to drive consistently. There were a lot of times I was off the circuit, or locked up, and then got past a driver and went off the road.

In the end I tried to overtake Kobayashi but lost the car on a patch that was a bit more wet than I expected and went into the side of him. I’m not happy with my performance, it was not a good race for me personally, but I’m pleased that the team did well with Tonio and the sixth position.
Adrian Sutil

Compare Adrian Sutil’s form against his team mate in 2010

Vitantonio Liuzzi

Was on course to make an improvement that would have got him into Q2 but suffered understeer as his tyres began to grain towards the end of his last run and missed the cut.

He started 17th thanks to Vitaly Petrov’s penalty, gained several places from drivers who pitted early for intermediates and sustained that advantage when he made his pit stop on lap 31.

Liuzzi passed Kobayashi on lap 36 and took advantage of Rubens Barrichello’s mistake to take sixth at the chequered flag:

Unfortunately we had to do a lot of laps behind the safety car after that but the track was so slippery that it was really hard under braking.

Then at the end it was like a night race without any lights and the steering wheel lights were so bright it was almost dazzling.

Even though there was so little grip I was able to get into a good rhythm and get a great result for the team.

After all the bad luck we’ve had in this part of the year it’s brilliant to be back in business and up there in the points again, extending our advantage over Williams and setting ourselves up well for the last two races.
Vitantonio Liuzzi

Compare Vitantonio Liuzzi’s form against his team mate in 2010

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    Author information

    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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    22 comments on “Sutil fined (Force India race review)”

    1. Great job by Tonio!

      1. He really needed that result. See if he can keep it up for the last two races.

      2. indeed and i believe that sutil isnt to blame ffor the crash just for having bad brakes cause kobayashi shut the door to severrly

      3. I dont see Tonio did anything good. Actually I dont think he overtook anybody in the whole race except hulk and struggling Rubens. Nothing special about that drive.

        And about Sutil, he had a bad day, may ne he thought he is in war :)

    2. I can’t help but feel Adrian was going..

      “MMmmmeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeoooW! Splaassh!!.. errrrrgh… CRASH”

      ..inside his helmet all race long, he drove like his drink was spiked.

      1. Ha ha! At first I thought, ‘why would he be making cat noises in the cockpit’ – then I got it!

      2. hahahahaha! COTD! Definetly!

        1. haha, thanks! :) I never get COTD, I live inside Keith’s COTD blindspot ;)

    3. Brake problems?, that goes some way to explaining why he was driving like a fighter bomber.

    4. I reckon, that had Sutil had a bit more luck, we’d now be talking about how great he is… He could have recognised his problem and backed off, but, no racing driver worth his salt would do that…

      1. There is luck and then there is driving like an idiot. Just ask webber about trying too hard

      2. Damon Hill was happy to retire a healthy car in Japan 99, claiming there was something wrong with it

    5. I was yelling at the TV for someone to demand he bring his car into the garage, get out of it, get a hammer and nail, drive the nail into the wall, then hang the keys to the car on the nail and go home!

      He was brutal.

    6. Congratulations to Tonio. It was nice to see him put in a good drive with the tricky conditions.

      Sutil deserved the fine and penalty for me which is a shame as he had looked to be keeping his head a lot more this season. I know racing drivers just want to do there job no matter what problem they have but he was foolish. There’s not really much point carrying on if you’re going to be a danger and hit into everything.

    7. Alright, he had brake problems. But he behaved like a clown yesterday, so the brake problem isn’t a excuse.

      Why attacking so hard if you know you cannot brake properly? His move on Kobayashi was never going to end well, plus some rams here and there.

      Biggest fail of the day and one of the worst drives of the season.

    8. Great drive from Liuzzi for sure. I still kind of think it’s probably too little too late for him to retain his seat next year, but who knows.

      1. Agree on both accounts Peter.

        Good to see Liuzzi actually driving the car like he used to do in his first season at RBR when he got the chance to drive.

    9. The way Sutil drove, it’s as if they filled his Drinks Tray with Brandy and his finger was glued to blooming thing.

    10. Just reading about Sutil’s adventures throughout the race puts it into perspective just how wild he was today! This could have been his worst race ever actually.

      1. He was *off* more often than the contents of my fridge..

        He had a stinker!

    11. Not sure what ghost was there over Sutil on Sunday.Surely he had one of the fastest car but just couldn’t make it work.

    12. Great job Liuzzi well done is all i have to say!

    Comments are closed.