Sahara Force India shows progress on qualifying for tomorrow's Bahrain GP

Sahara Force India put on a competitive showing in Bahrain this evening with Nico Hulkenberg qualifying in P8 ahead of Sergio Perez in P11.

P8 Nico Hulkenberg VJM08-01
Q1: 1:35.653 Q2: 1:34.613 Q3: 1:34.450

“P8 – I’m happy with that. I think we extracted the most we could from the car today. Overnight we made some good tweaks to the set-up and that helped, especially in these slightly cooler temperatures. It was quite windy, but it didn’t impact on us too badly and all of my laps were pretty good. Points will be the goal tomorrow, but it won’t be easy because there are a lot of quick cars behind us and they will put pressure on us. We need to make the best of the car we have and hopefully come away with a good result. Bahrain always produces good racing with the DRS zones and tyre degradation will be an important factor in the ace. Whatever happens, we are ready for the fight.”

P11 Sergio Perez VJM08-02
Q1: 1:35.451 Q2: 1:34.704

“Even though I’m frustrated at missing out on Q3 by just a few hundredths of a second, I think we can be satisfied about the big step forward today. It would have been an amazing result to have both cars in the top ten, but eleventh on the grid is something we can be happy about and it’s the result of a massive effort by everyone in the team. Today both our car and the track characteristics played into our hands, possibly more than we were anticipating. This result is also a matter of learning the best way to set up this car. The sixth row is a good place to start and I’m optimistic about getting some good points tomorrow. We have shown to be pretty good around here: we had strong pace during our longer runs yesterday and this should give us a chance of a strong result.”

Robert Fernley, Deputy Team Principal: “Today's qualifying result is a very positive step in the right direction. It was encouraging to see us nearly placing two cars in the top ten and, even though we just missed out with Sergio, we can be proud of this effort: the drivers extracted everything that the car could offer and they put together some excellent laps. We must not get carried away as we know that our car is particularly suited to this track, but we are confident for tomorrow. Starting in P8 and P11 gives us a good shot at scoring points, so it will be important to do a good job tonight and be prepared for tomorrow's race. Our pace looked solid in practice and we will need to ensure our strategy gives us the opportunity to make the best of it: the midfield is very competitive so it won't be an easy job, but we're ready for it.”

Sahara Force India