Paul di Resta - Photo Credit: Force India F1 Team
Force India secured their first double-points finish since the opening race of the season and driver Paul di Resta recorded his best-ever F1 result by finishing sixth in today’s Singapore Grand Prix.
Adrian Sutil brought his car home in eighth place to give the team a total of 12 points and put some distance between them and Sauber in the battle for sixth place in the constructors’ championship.
“My first Singapore Grand Prix was a lot of fun and I'm very happy with the outcome,” said Di Resta. “I don't think the safety car really helped us because I still had a lot of life left in the supersoft tyres in the middle of the race, but it didn't really hurt us either. After that it was a case of managing my pace to Rosberg, looking after the tyres and bringing the car home.
“I was in free air for the final part of the race, which helped, and the pace was strong. It's probably my best race of the season, but it's the result of all the hard work behind the scenes. We came here with an upgrade package that has allowed us to gain performance in the race, gain tyre life, and we saw the benefits of that today.”
Sutil had to manage some worn tyres towards the end of the race, and was delighted to finish eighth. “We have been aiming to get both cars in the points for a while now, so we can be very happy with where we finished,” said the German. “The points we scored give us some breathing space over Sauber in the championship.
“It was quite a normal race for me, although I lost some track position under the safety car as Rosberg got ahead of me and stayed there until the end of the race. The final stint was quite difficult because I had to do about 30 laps on the soft tyres. I had Perez close behind me and then Massa was closing in fast on the final lap. Fortunately I had enough to hold on to eighth.”
Team principal Vijay Mallya congratulated both of his drivers on their efforts today and was, understandably, very pleased with the result.
“I have to say I am delighted with today's result,” he said. “We knew we had the performance in the car to get both drivers in the points, but to come away with 12 points is extremely satisfying. It strengthens our sixth place in the championship and moves us closer to fifth place.
“One of the key moments of the race was the safety car period, when we chose to pit both cars at the same time. The pit crew did an excellent job of stacking the cars and that played a critical role in where we ultimately finished. Both Paul and Adrian have performed brilliantly all weekend and haven't put a foot wrong.
“With five races remaining we now need to build on this momentum so that we continue our strong finish to the season.”
