After a disappointing qualifying session for Force India, they were always expecting a tough race and the team will leave Germany without scoring any points.
Despite this result, Force India remain sixth in the constructors standings.
The team’s misery from qualifying yesterday was further compounded early-on after Adrian Sutil and Tonio Liuzzi made contact on the first lap. There was confusion in subsequent pit stops when both cars required early pit stops and ended up leaving the pits with a set of tyres belonging to the other driver.
“What can we say, it’s been a very disappointing weekend,” said Sutil. “The first lap I had some contact with Tonio and lost some positions. It was always our strategy that, if after the start I had not made up places, I would pit on the first lap to change to the prime tyres and make up positions when other cars stopped later on.
“It was a good plan as you have nothing to lose when you are that far down, but there was some confusion in the stop. Tonio had radioed to say he was coming in for a front wing change and as we both arrived at the same time the tyre sets got mixed up and then I had to come in and pit again to get the correct set.
“Once they were on I got going and I could get quite far up the field but then I had to stop when the set went off. This weekend we’ve just not been quick enough but we feel it’s just a blip and not anything too serious – at some races you just don’t run well, so it’s best to write it off and look forward to the next races.”
Liuzzi shared similar sentiments to his teammate: “It’s been a pretty disappointing race weekend overall,” said the Italian. “I had one contact on the first lap and we believed we had damaged the front wing, so I came to the pits for a change but there was a mix-up in the stop with the tyres so I had to come back in again. It was a shame as I had had a good first lap until that point and afterwards we had a really strong race pace.
“It was always going to be tough, but the pace we showed was the same as the top ten runners. We have to look at these positives and look forward to the next race in Budapest.”
