Force India
Force India profit in a wet Malaysia qualifying
Gathering Storm
By Bigpip
April 3 2010
Three qualifying days into the new Formula One season saw Force India drivers Adrian Sutil and Tonio Liuzzi qualify in the top 10 for tomorrows Malaysian Grand Prix. Malaysia's weather at this time of year appears to be quite predictable, at least for two thirds of the F1 Grid. On this occasion, Mclaren and Ferrari got it totally wrong and ended up at the blunt end of the 24 car grid.
Force India along with the majority of the teams made the right call at the right time, making sure that both drivers started qualy one on the right sort of tyres for the conditions that were to say the least wet.
The session started in the rain. While Mclaren and Ferrari were happy to sit out the session and wait for drier conditions to come in, banker laps were being put in by the rest of the teams.
The drier conditions didn't actually arrive and mid way through the session the teams switched from their intermediate tyres to full wets. Once the boots are on, there is no way that you're going to go faster, even if the track started to dry out. The big boys couldn't set the lap times they needed to and as Button span out, they all start from the back.
Adrian and Tonio however ended the first session in 11th and 14th places respectively, putting both cars into qualy 2.
The second session seemed a little less wet if there can be such a thing. With showers coming in over the circuit and lots of standing water, wet tyres were still the order of the day for boys. Qualy 2 ends with Adrian in 10th and Tonio in 12th. Both cars through to the final session for the first time this season.
As the final session started, the heavens really opened. All of the drivers went out to set a banker on their wet tyres. Two minutes after the start of the session, race control decided that it was just too wet to continue and the session was red flagged. The teams retreated to their garages and sat out the weather.
Just before to the session restarting, both Force India drivers were sat at the end of the pit lane. Rather than line astern, the lined up next to each other with Adrian looking like he was vying to get out in front of Tonio. The team radio told him otherwise!
Adrian put in a fantastic lap to go to the top of the time sheets but stayed out on the wet tyres. Mark Webber took a chance and switched to inters. They worked and the Aussie took pole position and stayed there. Adrian finished the session in fourth place and Tonio was tenth.
A great session, not only from the drivers but the team read the conditions perfectly to optimise their chances. Just show's that it takes more than money to make it in Formula One.
Brilliant!
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03/04/2010 11:52
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Well done to Force India - they read the weather well, their drivers kept it on the island and everything worked when it needed to most.
Good luck for tomorrow!
Let's see if they can keep it on the track tomorrow...
Cheers,
SdL
Row second for Sutil - promises lots of fun today
I hope Sutil bad karma is over and he hauls some good points
and shows his skills and speed of car to overtake 3 in front
10th for Liuzzi is not bad considering he is a steady driver
and a slogger!
Looking forward to the race........
Best of luck to both the team!
F1Zooom
[www.forceindiaf1.com]
[www.forcefans.co.uk]
Good to hear from you again! Is Hew still about?
