‘Disappointed’ was the word that both Force India drivers used after they each finished out of the points at today’s British Grand Prix.
Paul di Resta, who was competing at his first home race, was going well until some confusion over tyres at his second pit stop. At the end of the race, he had just the Virgin Racing and Hispania cars behind him on track.
“It's extremely disappointing to end my first British Grand Prix in P15,” said the Scot. “I had a good first part of the race; we seemed quite competitive and I was able to hold on to Jenson [Button] as I concentrated on looking after my intermediate tyres. I think we made the switch to dry tyres at the right moment and we were running well.
“Then I got a call to come into the pits again, but when I got there the team were expecting Adrian, so there was obviously some confusion. It cost me quite a lot of time because the boys had to run back in the garage and fetch my tyres. That cost us about 25 seconds, which pretty much ended my chances.
“So it's a frustrating race, but I think we should stay positive because the car has shown well this weekend and that gives me confidence going into the second part of the season.”
Adrian Sutil had no such mishaps to blame for his failure to score points. He finished in P11, and said the result was just down to lack of pace.
“After such a promising start to the race it's disappointing to come away empty-handed,” said the German. “My start was okay and things looked good in the first few laps. The conditions were tricky, with a lot of damp areas in the second sector, but I felt quite confident and was able to run in the points.
“I think we made the right decision with the strategy to stop three times, but in the end I don't think we had the pace to hold on for points today.”
Team principal Vijay Mallya explained the pit stop problem for Di Resta: “We called Paul in for his second scheduled stop, but at the same time Adrian came on the radio reporting a puncture,” he said. “We tried to get Paul to stay out so that we could service Adrian's 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.
“As for Adrian, he drove well, but lost out to the two-stoppers in the closing laps. It's clear we need to regroup and come back stronger in Germany so that we can convert the pace of the car into points.”
