In Adrian's case it was literally a pit stop lost as he was caught up in the Turn 1 carambolage. The collision that started with Heikki Kovalainen tagging Rubens Barrichello eventually caught out most of the drivers in the midfield because there was nowhere to go. Giancarlo was one of the few on the scene at the time to completely avoid damage.

Adrian joined Heikki in the pits at the end of lap 1 to have a nosecone replaced, but unlike Heikki had a car sufficiently intact to rejoin the race.

Meanwhile, Giancarlo ran in 10th with a queue of cars behind him including both Toyotas. Clearly the Force India is a difficult car to pass, even under the new overtaking-friendly regime.

After that, Adrian was stuck behind Nick Heidfeld - until the Safety Car came out following Kazuki Nakajima's crash on lap 18. The Safety Car took its time to queue up the field, so Force India used the moment to pit Giancarlo before the queue fully formed. Which was when it all went wrong. The FIA had spent the early part of the week leading up to Australia messing about with race numbers. One of the consequences was that Force India's pit garage had moved. Somehow Giancarlo forgot where Force India have moved to until he was level with the rear tyres. It took about 20 seconds for the mechanics to get his car into the correct position to complete the pitstop.

Adrian's pitstop on lap 22 was uneventful as he put soft tyres on his car. In the 12-lap stint, he spent most of his time fighting his team-mate, a tussle that looked somewhat scary at times. Despite colliding into one another on lap 29, the Force India team got away with this intra-team battle.

By the second Safety Car, Adrian and Giancarlo were running in a relatively comfortable 10th and 12th. Granted that there were only 13 cars in the race by this point, but after all the incidents having both of them finish was some sort of achievement in itself. Then Jarno Trulli was sent back 25 seconds for overtaking Lewis Hamilton under the Safety Car, a move which sent the Toyota driver into 12th position. This promoted Adrian and Giancarlo to 9th and 11th.

In summary, Force India looks good but things could be better. Hopefully Malaysia will be better, for although its high-downforce configuration normally means low-downforce cars like the VJM02 currently is fare badly, heavy rain is forecast throughout the weekend. Rain is the great leveller and Force India has a package that should be able to take advantage.

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