Bahrain GP: Force India qualifying report

The Force India Formula One Team will start tomorrow's Bahrain Grand Prix with Giancarlo Fisichella and Adrian Sutil in 18th and 20th positions. Once more the team was within 0.1 secs of the second qualifying session and just over one second from the top 10 as it continued its progress with the new aerodynamic parts introduced this weekend.

Giancarlo finished a promising 12th position in the final free practice session this morning, however was disappointed to miss the cut for Q2 after running wide with a minor brake issue on his first fast lap and then again on his second. After a red flag period just before the end of the session, Adrian got caught in traffic on his final fast lap and similarly just missed out on the top 16 in the final minutes of the session.

The team is however optimistic that the pace over longer runs will result in an improved performance in the race tomorrow.

Adrian Sutil (car 20)

'The circumstances were quite difficult today and we just had four minutes left when the session restarted after the red flag so everybody went out to do a fast lap. It was very difficult to judge the traffic on the out lap and to find the space, but overall it was quite good. I feel better in the car than in the last races so we have made an improvement, but the field is very close and it is very hard to reach the top 16. We are close, but not quite there at the moment, but we will for sure improve for the next races.'

Giancarlo Fisichella (car 21)

'Malaysia was five hundredths away, here it was close again so it is really disappointing as we are almost there. We had a problem with the front brakes and especially with the front locking on both laps so it is a bit disappointing. It is important to be close and try to move up in the race.'

Mike Gascoyne, chief technical officer

'It was disappointing again to have missed out on Q2 by just under a tenth. Both drivers just missed out on their final laps, with both having a problem with locking brakes, but we know we have a competitive car for the race and we will have to look to pick up positions and get two cars to the finish tomorrow.'

-credit: force india