Saturday: Force India is not in Q2 and gets a scare!

Friday’s day suggested a very good qualifying session for Force India. The team knows the circuit well and usually benefits from it, but unfortunately today, things did not go as planned. Indeed, after a disappointing third practice session, the drivers were unable to reach Q2, not due to their pace. Frustrating.

Adrian Sutil achieved the 15th fastest time this morning but was mainly the victim of the incident of the day just seconds before the end of Q1 in qualifying. The red flag was deployed, leaving the five eliminated drivers stuck without being able to defend themselves. Among them, the German will be 18th on the grid, and his teammate, Giancarlo Fisichella, will start 16th.

Adrian Sutil – 15th and 18th:

« First of all, I think we are having a good weekend overall, and until that accident, everything was going well in qualifying. I had a brake issue and couldn’t brake to enter the corner. I pressed the pedal but nothing happened. I tried to avoid this big accident, but it was impossible so I literally crashed. I’m fine, I just went to the center for some checks because it was a violent impact. We now have a lot of work to do on the car. Of course, it’s disappointing that both cars lost positions for not getting into Q2. »

Giancarlo Fisichella – 16th and 16th:

« We made progress, but unfortunately, on the last set of tires, Buemi was in front of me, and I had to slow down on my first flying lap. Then, on the second lap, there was the red flag due to Adrian [Sutil]’s accident. I couldn’t improve. I was aiming for a top 12 at the beginning, so it’s quite frustrating. Tomorrow, I hope to reach the checkered flag, and it would be good to score a point, but it will be difficult. »

Dominic Harlow – Chief Race Engineer:

Fortunately, Adrian is fine and we are going to study the car issue that may have caused this accident. We take the situation very seriously. The cars were fast enough to be in the top 15 and, unfortunately, Adrian’s accident led to the end of the session. We lost deserved positions. However, we can hope for a competitive race and we will try to convert our good pace into points.