Force India Qualifying Report

2011 Malaysia Grand Prix Qualifying and Final Free Practice Report – 9 April

Paul di Resta, Force India F1 Team

Photo by: xpb.cc

Adrian Sutil (car 14, VJM04/04)
FP3: 13th 1:38.464 (16 laps)
Q1: 12th 1:37.693 (6 laps)
Q2: 17th 1:37.593 (3 laps)

Paul Di Resta (car 15, VJM04/02)
FP3: 18th 1:38.864 (13 laps)
Q1: 16th 1:38.045 (9 laps)
Q2: 14th 1:37.370 (3 laps)

Qualifying Temperatures Air maximum: 30.0°C Air minimum: 28.0°C Track maximum: 44.0°C Track minimum: 36.0°C Humidity: 68.3 - 73.0%

The Force India F1 Team will start the Malaysia Grand Prix with Paul Di Resta in 14th place and Adrian Sutil in 17th. Following a few issues experienced over the course of the race weekend so far, the team pulled out all the stops today for the Qualifying sessions. Paul and Adrian once again made it into Q2 however, and shall be on the 7th and 9th rows of the grid respectively when the red lights go out at the start of the second race of the 2011 Formula One World Championship tomorrow.

Adrian Sutil (car 14)

The first qualifying session was not too bad I think and I felt quite positive. But we did not improve too much in the second session, which I was a little surprised about and we had a problem with a mis-shift. But I know the team is working hard to try and solve these issues before the race tomorrow.

Paul Di Resta (car 15)

It was a very good job done by the team and equally, I think it was a very good lap by myself! We got more than I think we thought we were going to get out of it and I think that we have certainly closed the gap. But tomorrow is going to be a long race, in tricky weather conditions, but I am certainly getting more excited now about our progress with regard to improving our performance in the future.

Dominic Harlow, circuit engineering director

Our aim was to maximise our qualifying performance whilst only using the option tyre when necessary. Fortunately neither driver was affected by the Red Flag midway through the first session, and both drivers progressed to Q2. As we showed at the last race, we can score points from these positions given how close things are throughout the pack. Unfortunately Adrian had a mis-shift that cost him a better lap in Q2. We'll be looking for a solid race to take advantage of the opportunities that are bound to arise in tomorrow's conditions. With some more development over the coming events and Q3 only a few tenths away, we'll be working as hard as we can to improve on these positions in future and become regular Q3 material.

Source: Force India