Giancarlo was running as high as eighth at one point during the race, and after the German's stop-go penalty after pitting when the pit-lane was closed (what do they want him to do, run out of fuel?) Giancarlo managed to keep Nick Heidfeld's BMW behind for a few laps.

Fisi said that he "enjoyed the battle with Heidfeld - he was quicker than me but I managed to keep him behind for many laps."

Vijay Mallya jubilated, "keeping the car that was leading the constructors' World Championship behind us also put a big smile on my face!"

Mike Gascoyne spoke of the loss of the possible 8th place position, "It was difficult at his first pit stop when the safety car came out as we were just seconds away from coming in, but Giancarlo did a great job to conserve fuel so we could hang on until the pit lane opened.

"We short fuelled him to jump the cars in the pit stop, which worked perfectly for us, but we then got bottled up behind Sato, which meant we couldn't use the light car to build up the cushion and we dropped a couple of places.

"It was a shame as at one point 8th place was on the cards."

The race was altogether different for Adrian Sutil. The young German recorded his third DNF of the season after attempting a...let's say...ambitious move on David Coulthard on the first lap before spinning into the path of Sebastian Vettel's Toro Rosso.

"After a good start into turn four I was on the inside and had a try to overtake another car, but it was too close and I couldn't make the corner," Adrian said.

"I crashed into a car and my race was over then and there," he continued.

With Honda scoring their first points of the season today after Jenson Button drove an impressive race, Force India and Super Aguri are the only teams not yet to score points this season. 

Bookmark or share this story with:

• Digg
• Delicious
• Facebook
• Reddit
• Stumbleupon

Related Articles:

• Force India switch to two-wheels in Spain

SPORTNETWORK SPECIALS

• Think you know your sport? Click here to try the Sportnetwork Prize Quizzes