Fisichella was at one point ahead of Rubens Barrichello in the race after a start Mike Gascoyne described as 'storming', but the Brazilian eventually emerged ahead of the Roman after the first pitstops, Rubens the last of the finishers not to be lapped by the leaders, keeping Fisi at bay until the end.

Fisi said, "I had a good start and I overtook some cars in turn one and then some more when some cars spun in turn seven."

He continued, "In the middle stint there were some problems with the soft tyres and they did not seem to work as well as they could have, but at the end of the race the hard tyres were working well and I was comfortable."

Force India's main amount of TV time came today with a battle for position between Fisi and Lewis Hamilton who was down the grid after a poor start and a controversial incident with ex-team mate Fernando Alonso. Hamilton eventually got the better of the FI driver on lap 31 before making his pit stop, the Brit subsequently finishing behind the team he now neighbours in the pitlane.

Unfortunately, more TV time came in the way of Adrian being lapped by the leaders, with the young German finishing two laps down after his dramas on the opening lap.

He commented, "After quite a good start I had an accident in the first corner and lost my front wing and punctured my left tyre so I had to go into the pits."

Radio problems resulted in Adrian coming into the pits too early for his second stop. "The race was a bit messy from that point of view, but at least I could finish and collect some information for the next race", he added.

Mike Gascoyne added that although "we turned him around pretty quickly, he came out just in front of the pack, which meant he lost a lot of time with the blue flags.

"When he was on his own he was able to drive consistently and quickly and it is encouraging to see him get his first finish of the year."

So, all in all a promising race for the team, really proving the improvements the team has made over the winter, with Vijay Mallya summing up that he "was delighted with Giancarlo's race pace and proud to see a Force India again fighting with well-established and experienced teams and drivers."

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