Force India are now higher than they’ve ever finished in the constructors’ championship having overtaken Sauber for sixth.
| Adrian Sutil | Paul di Resta | |
| Qualifying position | 12 | 11 |
| Qualifying time comparison (Q2) | 1’24.209 (+0.046) | 1’24.163 |
| Race position | 8 | |
| Laps | 9/53 | 52/53 |
| Pit stops | 0 | 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 | 53 | |
| Adrian Sutil | 133.924 | 142.434 | 132.186 | 94.495 | 93.738 | 92.408 | 93.197 | 91.455 | 91.485 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Paul di Resta | 124.067 | 143.372 | 136.885 | 94.002 | 94.986 | 92.235 | 92.165 | 91.62 | 91.303 | 90.774 | 90.938 | 90.912 | 95.204 | 108.852 | 90.651 | 90.368 | 90.243 | 90.094 | 90.322 | 89.9 | 90.127 | 89.813 | 90.248 | 89.807 | 89.672 | 89.78 | 89.699 | 89.62 | 89.695 | 89.763 | 94.411 | 109.324 | 89.985 | 89.61 | 89.232 | 89.246 | 89.449 | 89.033 | 88.808 | 90.436 | 89.074 | 88.654 | 88.778 | 88.482 | 88.117 | 89.085 | 88.269 | 88.101 | 88.096 | 88.225 | 89.235 | 88.054 |
Adrian Sutil
| Start tyre | Medium |
Sutil started the race on medium tyres and had to take to the gravel to avoid the first-corner crash.
His car wasn’t damaged but he retired on the tenth lap with an hydraulic problem while running 14th.
Paul di Resta
| Start tyre | Soft |
| Pit stop 1 | Soft 21.87s |
| Pit stop 2 | Medium 23.069s |
“Monza is not the easiest of tracks to get up to speed on,” was di Resta’s initial verdict on a track he had never raced at prior to this weekend.
He got to grips with it quickly enough to out-qualify Sutil by a scant four-hundredths of a second.
Having avoided the lap one carnage, di Resta made an early pit stop on lap 13. This allowed him to jump in front of Pastor Maldonado, but he lost a position to Jaime Alguersuari with his correspondingly early switch to medium tyres on lap 31.
He caught Alguersuari over the final stint but was still almost four seconds behind at the flag.
That netted his fourth points finish of the season which moves Force India ahead of Sauber on the constructors’ championship.
Nico Hulkenberg
Drove di Resta’s car in first practice.
2011 Italian Grand Prix
Image © Force India F1 Team
BasCB (@bascb)
12th September 2011, 12:45
A Hydraulics issue it was then. Quite a bit of time since we had one of those. Good drive by Di Resta.
Marco
12th September 2011, 13:09
Feel sorry for Sutil, but it looks like Di Resta is closer to him on tracks with less fast corners (Montreal, Monza)… Still, I expected from Adrian to shine again… Especially Suzuka should be his track…
bosyber
13th September 2011, 15:14
So Abu Dhabi and Singapore will see Sutil outclassed by di Resta? Will be interesting to see if you are right!
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
12th September 2011, 14:15
I wasn’t expecting Force India to overtake Sauber, to be honest. Well done to them!
The mid-field battle is as fierce as ever! STR looks the strongest at the moment, tho…
Fixy (@)
12th September 2011, 17:51
Force India have never finished higher than 7th in the constructors’ championship, so they’re currently beating their record (although I hope Sauber, and Toro Rosso, will beat them).
Sush Meerkat
13th September 2011, 10:02
its for Bragging Rights as well as money, Sauber poached a lot of Force India staff and the general consensus is that they were finished, FI had other ideas though.
1 of the 3
12th September 2011, 17:36
I’m a Sutil fan but am also very pleased that Force India overtook Sauber and really hope that FI’s driver line-up stays the same for 2012. It’s usually either Sutil or Di Resta scoring points but would love to see both doing it more consistently.
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
14th September 2011, 18:06
It’s by no means out of their grasp.
vickyy (@vickyy)
12th September 2011, 18:05
Really, it is very commendable that a team just 4 years old is among the best mid-field team keeping all hiccups at bay.
Dutch_Alex
12th September 2011, 18:35
I thought that after their good season last year things could only go backwards for FI. Guess they’re proving me wrong:P. I do think that with the recourses they have 6th is the highest possible for them (Unless Renault or Mercedes drop back that is).
bosyber
13th September 2011, 15:16
With Renault having rediscovered a bit of momentum, I think you are right 6th will be the maximum for this year. For next year it might not be, depending on Renaults progress and drivers.
Ritesh (@rits)
13th September 2011, 10:59
Pretty pleased with what this team has achieved in a short span. What’s even more pleasing is that they’ve managed to do that with not only a budget much smaller than Williams, Sauber and maybe even STR, but also despite losing a lot of key personnel to Sauber and Lotus (or Caterham or Team Fernandes or whatever..).