Robert Fernley was delighted to see his drivers finished fourth and seventh in the extremely challenging Brazilian Grand Prix, and felt neither Sergio Perez or Nico Hülkenberg put a foot wrong all afternoon.
Perez drove strongly, running third in the closing stages before being caught and passed by Max Verstappen, while Hülkenberg recovered from a puncture to finish seventh having been running ahead of Perez before hitting the debris left behind from Kimi Raikkonen’s crash.
Force India Deputy Team Principal Fernley praised both drivers for making the best of the hand they were dealt with in Brazil, and with Williams Martini Racing failing to score, the team edged closer to confirming themselves in fourth place in the Constructors’ Championship.
“What an exciting race!” said Fernley. “To come away with 18 points from such a challenging race is a fantastic reward for an excellent job by the entire team.
“Both drivers didn’t put a wheel wrong and the decisions from the pit wall were spot on. Sergio came within a whisker of another podium and thoroughly deserved fourth place. For Nico to recover from the puncture to finish seventh showed his class once again and made us all wonder what might have been because he was running in fourth when the puncture struck.
“With such difficult track conditions, just getting both cars to the finish is a victory and to have both in the points takes us a good step closer to achieving fourth place in the constructors’ championship.”