Force India: Sutil helps team overtake Toro Rosso

2011 German GP team review

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Adrian Sutil’s sixth place moved Force India back in front of Toro Rosso in the championship.

But team mate Paul di Resta’s race was ruined after he was hit by Nick Heidfeld on the first lap.

Adrian Sutil Paul di Resta
Qualifying position 8 12
Qualifying time comparison (Q2) 1’31.809 (-0.751) 1’32.560
Race position 6 13
Laps 60/60 59/60
Pit stops 2 2

Force India drivers’ lap times throughout the race (in seconds):

https://www.racefans.net/charts/2011drivercolours.csv

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 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60
Adrian Sutil 106.322 100.48 99.761 99.308 99.29 99.651 99.432 99.073 99.641 99.312 99.44 99.94 99.672 99.458 100.312 99.432 99.517 99.285 99.372 99.225 99.184 101.381 115.529 97.799 97.811 97.649 98.064 97.574 97.2 97.563 97.864 98.769 97.434 97.411 97.58 97.393 97.324 97.213 96.996 97.238 98.137 97.224 97.119 97.092 97.094 97.222 96.773 99.108 115.994 96.978 97.078 96.822 96.971 97.981 97.007 96.756 96.653 96.938 97.08 97.616
Paul di Resta 116.515 104.234 102.223 100.922 100.867 99.906 100.182 100.701 99.524 99.969 100.336 100.468 100.021 99.604 99.838 99.932 99.999 99.969 99.939 99.812 99.697 100.183 102.616 118.714 98.109 97.747 97.859 97.844 97.7 97.863 97.57 97.716 97.991 98.143 97.979 98.977 98.427 97.944 98.047 97.643 98.135 97.711 98.673 100.216 97.522 98.382 98.042 97.163 97.226 97.065 99.913 119.106 97.675 96.715 97.126 97.581 97.708 97.849 97.502
Adrian Sutil, Force India, Nurburgring, 2011

Adrian Sutil

Sutil had his best weekend of the year so far on home ground. He started by emphatically out-qualifying his team mate – for only the third time this year – by three-quarters of a second.

He moved ahead of the slow-starting Jenson Button to claim seventh place at the start. Button eventually passed Sutil, but retired shortly after.

Using a two-stop strategy, Sutil was able to jump ahead of Nico Rosberg and finished 17 seconds up the road from the Mercedes.

“To get this result in my home race also makes it extra special and I’d like to thank the fans for their support this weekend,” he said afterwards.

Adrian Sutil 2011 form guide

Paul di Resta

Di Resta’s hopes of scoring points were dashed on the first lap: “I made a reasonable start, maintained my position and I was racing with Michael [Schumacher] into the first corner.

“Then I got hit from behind, which must have been Nick [Heidfeld], and that spun me around and compromised my race.”

He fell to the back of the field and made some progress, aided by Heidfeld’s later collision with Sebastien Buemi. But he could finish no higher than 13th.

Paul di Resta 2011 form guide

2011 German Grand Prix

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    31 comments on “Force India: Sutil helps team overtake Toro Rosso”

    1. Sutil needed a result like this. Maybe a big exaggerated by the fact di Resta had a tough race, but impressive nonetheless.

      1. It was great beating both Mercedes! I didn’t notice him during the race but he did a good job.

      2. Indeed.

      3. I think Sutil can be just as proud regardless. He out-qualified Di Resta. Though if you were cynical enough you could argue that we shouldn’t get excited about that usually!

    2. Clearly the best of the rest of the weekend. Now they should be hopeful because after Hungary, Spa and Monza is incoming!!

    3. I am laughing a lot at the Di Resta “trashing” of Sutil… :D Adrian is now 16 points ahead and I doubt it could have been better… Well done yesterday, the 2nd best driver of the race for me! :)

      1. AdrianMorse
        25th July 2011, 13:59

        Although I also feel that the “thrash-talk” was never warranted, equally Sutil’s points lead is a little flattered, as Di Resta has had rotten luck in the last two races in which the car was capable of scoring points.

        1. You make your own luck.

        2. Di Resta is just making too many mistakes in races… In Monaco he collided with Alguersuari, in Canada he spun off the track, in Great Britain he collided with Buemi and this time he had a contact with Heidfeld…

          1. Considering Heidfeld only avoided serving a drive-through for his collision with di Resta because Buemi crashed into him just after the penalty was issued, it’s fair to say on this occasion Paul was not to blame.

            Adrian was mighty yesterday and it was great to see him back to his best.

      2. It’s a bit like Maldonado and Barrichello as far as I see it – the young gun is consistently getting more out of the car in qualifying, but due to rookie mistakes it’s usually the wise old head who’s ahead by the end of the race.

    4. Glad to see adrian have a good weekend after trasjhing the Gumpert the weekend before, and gettting in a punch up in china.

    5. Sutil really needed a result like this after all the flak he was getting for being outqualified by his teammate. He was at his best this weekend, and lets hope he can find some consistency in form

    6. Interesting thoughts on Force India here

      An excellent result for Sutil: I have rarely been so pleased for a German driver!

      1. Not only do I not understand where it refers to Force India. I also suspect that a cheap plug like that is unwelcome.

        —–

        This race there can be no doubt. Sutil was massively quicker than Di Resta. (As he should be.)

        1. Now the link works. -.-

        2. ScottishNotBritish
          26th July 2011, 9:22

          Clearly, Sutil was well ahead in qualifying, but it wasn’t unusual to see large gaps between teammates on Saturday: Button was over a second behind Hamilton, and Schumacher was over a second behind Rosberg.

          As for Sunday, we’ll never know what Di Resta could have achieved. His race was compromised when Heidfeld went in to the back of him. The fact he made his way back up to 13th from last shows there was some pace in his car.

    7. thx rick its a nice link ….

    8. Good race from Sutil a lot criticism but finally he drove a good race with his strategy.

      1. Finally? Three of this years best Force India results came from Sutil… He is doing a great job in races compared to his team mate…

    9. ScottishNotBritish
      26th July 2011, 13:08

      Marco, you seem to take a keen interest in these two drivers, with a clear preference for Sutil. Unfortunately, though, you tend to exaggerate your points.

      You’re correct in saying that Di Resta has underperformed in races. However, this has often not been of his own making: in Monaco and Canada he was the brunt of some over-zealous stewarding, in the UK his team were not ready for him in the pits, and at the weekend he was hit from behind.

      While the unimaginative only look at the points leaderboard, more enlightened people can realise that for mid-field rookies, like Di Resta, there are more important indicators of performance. They recognise that over the first 10 races he has shown better pace than his teammate, and unfortunate incidents alone have denied him around 25 points in the last 5 races.

      1. “25 points in the last 5 races”

        I guess this is a joke! :)

        Who collided with Alguersuari in Monaco? Who spun off the track in Canada? Who collided with Buemi in Silverstone? He is making too many mistakes and that is the main problem of his non scoring… And his race pace is nothing extraordinary compared to his pace in qualifying… But some people are always trying to make some excuses… ;)
        I am pleased about Sutil s race performances and he really don t need to be ashamed of his Sunday showing… He wins not just in points, but also in race finished battle… (5:3)

        1. ScottishNotBritish
          27th July 2011, 8:01

          Here we go again…

          I’m not making excuses, what I’m saying is that in Monaco, Canada and Silverstone (your three examples) he was running WELL ahead of Sutil, and in more fortunate circumstances would have been able to convert serious points.

          Sutil is a good driver. It would be nice if you didn’t feel like you had to denigrate his promising rookie teammate to try to make this point.

          1. I wrote what I wanted, there is no need to write anything else about it… ;) Sutil is simply the better racer of those two as he can maximise his chances and opportunities and transform them to points… ;) Di Resta has a lot to learn… ;)

    10. A brilliant race from Sutil, his season is beginning to get going in the last few races.

    11. FI has really gotten some good upgrades on their car, as Sutil’s pace and points show, and as underscored by Di Resta coming 13th after a bad race.

      Over the race Sutil was in an honest competition with Rosberg in the Mercedes, albeit largely because his middle stint was a lot less slow, and more consistent and long enough to do a pitstop less, than that of the Mercedes cars.

    12. Sutil is a good driver but not in the same league with
      Hamilton and Alonso and Kobayashi in terms of talent

      1. They are all in the same league, it’s called FORMULA 1. *rolleyes*

        1. Not in the ‘Talent League’, no :)

        2. By applying that logic you’re effectively saying that Karthikeyan is exactly the same as Alonso, Vettel, Hamilton…

      2. Don t think it is good to put Kobayashi in the same league with Hamilton and Alonso… His qualifyings are still average…

    Comments are closed.