Force India
China Practise 2: Bouncing All Over The Timesheets
By Alianora La Canta
April 17 2009
After everyone had time to look at their telemetry over lunch, the afternoon session began. Slightly warmer than before, but still bone dry and certainly not sufficient to account for the... ...interesting... ...time Force India had on circuit. Never mind getting fast times - getting any times proved to be less than straightforward.
1:00pm - Force India doesn't join the cluster of drivers leaving the pits straight away. This is unusual for them.
1:03pm - Both Force India drivers exited the pits. Giancarlo and Adrian are the 11th and 12th drivers to take to the track.
1:07pm - Giancarlo got 4th place, which looked quick until Adrian set the fastest lap of all; 1:38.272. These must be the softer tyres...
1:10pm - Giancarlo improves his time, but due to others completing laps, he is only 8th. Adrian is now 3rd, but improves to 1:38.136.
1:12pm - Adrian sets a purple Sector 1. The graining phase for him lasted three laps. Oddly, the purple sector 1 (and green sector 2) was followed by a visit to the garage. He did 6 laps and is 6th.
Meanwhile, Giancarlo pits, having done 6 laps. He is now 11th.
1:25pm - Both Force Indias leave the pits.
1:30pm - Giancarlo sets a time good enough for 11th while Adrian sets one good enough for 5th.
1:31pm - Adrian pits, having done three laps. He's currently 6th.
1:32pm - Giancarlo pits, having done four laps. He's currently 13th. I think that might have been a qualifying simulation on worn softs (due to the tyre allocation rules, Force India must already have used both of the soft sets permitted for Friday). Interestingly, he did four laps while Adrian only did three. Is this a clue as to how the pair will approach qualifying?
1:44pm - Both Force India drivers leave the pits and return to the circuit. Adrian is now 7th while Giancarlo remains 13th.
1:48pm - Both Force India drivers go off-track in the final sector. They return to the track with somewhat dusty tyres.
1:49pm - Giancarlo spun his car in Sector 2, catches the spin before it goes far into the run-off area (thankfully, China has lots of run-off and lacks gravel traps) and continues with even dustier tyres.
1:52pm - Adrian Sutil widens the final corner a bit. These Force Indias appear to have a problem handling the hard tyres.
1:58pm - Things have settled down a bit for Force India. It's been four laps since anything interrupted either Giancarlo's or Adrian's runs.
Jenson Button, whose Brawn was 2nd at the time, caught Giancarlo - but despite six corners of trying could not pass. He eventually opted to give Giancarlo space on the straight to get out of the turbulence.
2:00pm - Both Force Indias have pitted. Adrian is 10th and Giancarlo 16th. They ran for 10 laps.
2:08pm - It is revealed that Giancarlo has the fastest apex speed in Turn 1. Interesting, but doesn't explain why the Force India still seems to struggle in corners...
Meanwhile, Adrian is out of the pits.
2:11pm - It is obvious from the times that Adrian is on a worn tyre. Given the differential in speed, it's probably a worn soft.
2:13pm - Adrian went off in Turn 1.
2:15pm - Giancarlo is back on track (in 17th place). Adrian is still circulating in 10th position.
2:20pm - Giancarlo has set a green Sector 3 but the rest of the lap is nothing exceptional and he remains 18th.
2:22pm - Adrian has pitted. He did nine laps.
2:28pm - Adrian is back on circuit, with worn soft tyres. He is currently 11th. Giancarlo is still circulating, but has just been demoted to 20th. To be fair, he is on the 11th lap of the run, on tyres that were worn in the first place...
2:30pm - Adrian spins off track on his final lap, nearly lands in the one gravel trap on the course, but gathers the car together and gets going again. Ian Phillips, commercial director at Force India, describes the car's performance as "knife-edge".
2:31pm - The session is over, Adrian is 11th, 1.150 seconds behind Button and 0.921 seconds ahead of Giancarlo (who came 20th).
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17/04/2009 08:49
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009:04:18:08:55:33 by gordons.
Fisichella lacks motivation: he knows that this year in the last one as a driver in F1.The signs were given in the last weeks by Mallya.
My opinion is that our drivers are good.Our problem at the moment is the car's aero.I'm afraid Gascoine's removal was a big mistake by Mallya.
