Vijay Mallya blamed his drivers for missing the points in Canada – but at Silverstone the team were to blame.
| Adrian Sutil | Paul di Resta | |
| Qualifying position | 11 | 6 |
| Qualifying time comparison (Q2) | 1’32.617 (+0.048) | 1’32.569 |
| Race position | 11 | 15 |
| Laps | 52/52 | 51/52 |
| Pit stops | 3 | 2 |
Force India drivers’ lap times throughout the race (in seconds):
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | |
| Adrian Sutil | 123.376 | 115.928 | 114.558 | 113.145 | 112.995 | 113.139 | 112.806 | 113.173 | 113.584 | 111.961 | 107.891 | 133.93 | 107.958 | 104.466 | 103.369 | 102.87 | 102.028 | 101.37 | 100.792 | 100.486 | 100.821 | 101.221 | 101.071 | 101.454 | 96.398 | 119.057 | 100.437 | 99.797 | 99.69 | 99.543 | 98.994 | 98.184 | 99.236 | 98.186 | 98.378 | 98.232 | 98.52 | 98.099 | 98.735 | 95.301 | 118.987 | 96.744 | 97.027 | 97.153 | 97.234 | 96.996 | 97.244 | 96.851 | 97.151 | 97.625 | 97.735 | 98.982 |
| Paul di Resta | 120.926 | 114.983 | 113.324 | 113.582 | 113.059 | 113.295 | 113.311 | 112.653 | 112.253 | 112.103 | 113.825 | 107.746 | 129.634 | 104.715 | 103.561 | 102.785 | 102.261 | 101.633 | 101.381 | 101.383 | 101.037 | 101.307 | 101.116 | 97.451 | 138.918 | 103.17 | 130.528 | 101.246 | 100.581 | 101.026 | 102.455 | 101.657 | 100.986 | 99.469 | 99.188 | 99.996 | 99.084 | 100.026 | 99.005 | 99.267 | 98.88 | 100.565 | 98.648 | 98.565 | 98.847 | 98.992 | 98.193 | 97.936 | 98.916 | 99.087 | 98.877 |
Adrian Sutil
Sutil was not too disappointed after narrowly missing the cut for Q3 – there was just 0.029s in it. But he lost out to his team mate in qualifying for the seventh time in nine races.
He passed Pastor Maldonado early on and profited from the collision between Kamui Kobayashi and Michael Schumacher to move up to eighth behind his team mate.
However a puncture meant he had to run a three-stop strategy, which left him outside the points.
Paul di Resta
Had his best result in qualifying so far, taking sixth place: “The whole team did an excellent job and made sure we were out on track at the right times.
“Maybe there was a little bit of luck at the end of Q3 when the rain started again, but I think that in the worst case scenario I would have ended up in eighth.”
He fell behind Lewis Hamilton at the start. But he held on to seventh place and his lap times compared very favourably with Jenson Button’s when the track was wet.
But as Di Resta came in for his second pit stop on lap 24, Sutil had radioed the team he had a puncture. The team tried to switch the pit stops around, but Di Resta was already in the pit lane, and had to wait while the teams switched the tyres around.
Di Resta then compounded the problem by hitting Sebastien Buemi on his out lap, requiring another pit stop for a broken front wing. He finished 15th.
Mallya said: “Unfortunately things started to go wrong when we made a serious error on the pit wall.
“We called Paul in for his second scheduled stop, but at the same time Adrian came on the radio reporting a puncture. We tried to get Paul to stay out so that we could service Adrian?óÔé¼Ôäós car, but it was too late and Paul was already in the pit lane.
“That led to some confusion over the tyres being ready for Paul when he arrived at the garage and cost him a great deal of time.”
Nico H?â??lkenberg
Drove Sutil’s car in first practice.
2011 British Grand Prix
Image ?é?® Force India F1 Team
Fixy (@)
11th July 2011, 12:08
Like Sauber and Williams, qualifying was good, but the race became a disaster.
Di Resta needs to address his problems with hitting other cars: he did so also in Canada.
Alex Bkk
11th July 2011, 12:42
I like Di Resta much the same way I like Rosberg. They are blowing away their team mates with far more experience in F1.
Fixy, let’s give him some time to get it sorted out. What I saw in his eyes after Q3 was nothing but determination.
Marco
11th July 2011, 12:47
“They are blowing away their team mates”
Races:
10:2 for Sutil in terms of points
5:4 for Sutil in terms of race battles
4:3 for Sutil in terms of races they both finished
So, I don t know what you are writing about…
There are NO POINTS given for qualifying…
Alex Bkk
11th July 2011, 14:12
Yes in terms of Q. You have however not addressed the point of “experience”, neither have you responded to the Nico and Rosberg point.
Di Resta is faster in the same car than his team mate. It’s as simple as that. That Sutil has done a bit better in races perhaps means that he isn’t trying hard enough.
Alex Bkk
11th July 2011, 14:18
ermmmm Nico and Shumacher*
Marco
11th July 2011, 14:23
Di Resta is faster on one lap, that could be true… But Adrian Sutil was always more a racer then a qualifyier… Yesterday he was clearly matching Di Restas pace, again… I just didn t get the over-hyping of some drivers (Ricciardo, Di Resta, Maldonado) when their race results are not better then the ones of their team mates…
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
12th July 2011, 12:22
di Resta and Sutil were matching each other in the race until Paul and Sebastien collided.
BasCB (@bascb)
11th July 2011, 12:43
He certainly seems to be magnetic for carbon fibre bits lately!
Although I think Buemi was at least as much to blame for that crash.
Eggry (@eggry)
11th July 2011, 12:57
or he still think he drives a DTM car :P
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
12th July 2011, 13:38
Wasn’t he in the ways in Monaco too, or am I making that up?
He is a little crash-happy but none more so than say, Koabayashi was at the back end of 2009/beginning of 2010. Part of the experience.
Todfod (@todfod)
11th July 2011, 12:39
The Force India pitwall really dropped the ball on this one.
I think Di Resta needs to start taking better care of his front wing.. its ridiculous how many times he has knocked off the same part of that wing
bosyber (@bosyber)
11th July 2011, 14:05
What I don’t really get is, if the Silverstone pitlane is so fast, can’t they tell Paul to drive-through and come in the next lap? Or is that not allowed, even under the circumstances here?
Todfod (@todfod)
11th July 2011, 14:10
I’m guessing that would result in still a further loss of time. Depends on how much time they made him wait for.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
12th July 2011, 12:28
It’s allowed and in this context would have made sense. Even getting Paul to stop in the box and releasing him as soon as it was safe would have been a reasonable damage limitation exercise. The only time you can’t drive through the pit lane instead of using the track is on the last one. However, if the ability was abused there would surely be a regulation change rather quickly.
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
12th July 2011, 13:40
Ahhh…the benefit of hindsight. That may have crossed a few minds on the pit-wall if they were more familiar with the new track layout and how much time you lose coming in.
Marco
11th July 2011, 12:44
I was pleased with Adrians pace at the beginning as he was right behind Di Resta before his messed pitstop… On Sunday he can definitely match the Scot, he looks to be better only in qualifying…
RichyB
11th July 2011, 12:46
The only thing I’m beginning to fear about Di Resta, is that in his growing frustration over these contacts, he’s developing a mentality where he thinks that by sticking the front 1/3 of his car up the inside, that entitles him to complete the overtake.
Obviously, the skill in making an overtake comes from out-braking, taking more speed in, making the corner etc, all of which require effective calculated daring.
King Six
11th July 2011, 14:06
I think the awareness and defensive driving has really been appalling this season, yet the attackers are constantly being punished. These stupid massive front wings don’t help when cars just turn in even though they know another car is besides them. They know they’ll never get the blame.
They need to rewrite the rulebook when it comes to overtaking.
ScottishNotBritish
11th July 2011, 18:46
Agreed 100%. Those defending need to give their opponents more space. It takes two to tango, but those attacking always seem to get the blame these days.
Gridlock
12th July 2011, 14:37
You need to read up on racecraft before saying things like this, and at least half of the other comments judging drivers on their overtaking could do with doing the same.
Hint – the guy in front gets the racing line if he wants it.
Eggry (@eggry)
11th July 2011, 12:47
Tyre row was funny. I remember they got penalty when they exchanged tyres of Sutil and Liuzzi last year. maybe the pit crews need much more exercise…
Luis
11th July 2011, 15:38
If they were pitting for the same compound, what prevented Di Resta from using Sutil’s tyres? What are the differences between each drivers’ tyres? Maybe air pressure?
ScottishNotBritish
11th July 2011, 18:47
It’s against the rules. A driver can use only his allocated tyres in a race weekend.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
12th July 2011, 13:41
They’ve got different barcodes on. A driver can only use the tyres with their barcodes on, to make the tyre allocations easy to police.
ScottishNotBritish
11th July 2011, 18:55
Force India seem to be lose out heavily on strategy. Through choice or compulsion they seem to make more pit stops than their competitors.
It’s exasperating because you can see on Sundays that there is decent pace in the car, and they have two fast drivers, but Perez, Buemi, Alguersuari and others regularly jump ahead of them in the race, by merely being easier on the tyres.
wasiF1 (@wasif1)
12th July 2011, 3:03
Bad day.They should have had a strong finish with di Resta if not they had that pit problem.He had good pace today & was racing well until that point.
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
12th July 2011, 13:41
Yea both drivers were doing pretty well as far as flinging the car around the track but other factors played against them.