The Canadian Grand Prix was cut short for Force India after accidents befell both drivers and they leave Montreal wondering what might have been if they had reached their full potential on race day.
Adrian Sutil lasted 49 laps before switching to dry tyres too early and touching the unforgiving walls. He had already survived a clash with Nico Rosberg, although he had to stop for a new front wing, and a drive-through penalty after stewards decided he was to blame for incident with the Mercedes driver.
“At the restart I was doing quite well until I got too close to Rosberg when the safety car was out,” explained the German. “All the cars ahead of me slowed down a lot at the hairpin and I just got caught out, which damaged my front wing. But the car still felt okay and I didn't lose too much time.
“After the drive-through penalty, I decided it was worth the risk of switching to dry tyres, but it was maybe a few laps too early. I had quite a big snap on my out lap and touched the wall, which broke the left rear suspension.”
Di Resta managed all but the final three laps of the grand prix. He also clipped the wall and had to park his car on the side of the track. Like his team-mate, the Scot was also deemed responsible for an earlier collision and given a drive-through penalty:
“After the restart I think things were going well until I lost my front wing against Nick [Heidfeld] at the chicane when he cut across me,” said di Resta. “That gave me a drive-through penalty, which I was quite surprised to receive because it only really compromised me.
“After that I was coming back through the field and I was pushing to pass Rubens [Barrichello] in the final few laps. Unfortunately I pushed a bit too hard and clipped the wall, which gave me a puncture. That's why I had to park the car. It's a shame because we had a strong car today and we could have come away with some important points.”
Team Principal Vijay Mallya agreed that, without the little accidents, things could have been very different for the team. “A very long and eventful afternoon of racing where we didn't realise our potential.” was his summary of the race in Canada. “We had a very quick car and both drivers were competitive, but the circumstances of the race did not go our way.
“Both drivers picked up damage to their front wings, without which I'm confident we could have come away with a double-points finish because the strategic calls from the pit wall were very good today. We will now go away and analyse our approach to the race so that we can come back stronger in Valencia”
