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| Sahara Force India picked up four points in the Italian Grand Prix as Paul Di Resta battled hard to finish in eighth place. Teammate Nico Hulkenberg was forced to retire in the closing stages with brake issues |
P8 Paul Di Resta (VJM05/02)
Tyre strategy: Used medium, new hard
Paul: “Coming into this weekend I probably would have settled
for eighth place, but when you consider the pace we showed in qualifying yesterday, we
certainly had high hopes for the race. I struggled at the start with the heavy fuel load
and didn’t really have the race pace on the medium tyres. Things improved after my
stop when I was running the hard compound and our pace was much stronger towards the end
of the race. But there was no way I could keep the Mercedes behind me and with their
two-stop strategy they had a bit more speed than us. It’s good to extend our lead
over Williams with a few more points, but obviously Sauber look strong and outperformed a
lot of people. We will take the positives from the weekend, analyse things and try and
improve our race pace in time for Singapore.”
DNF Nico Hulkenberg (VJM05/03)
Tyre strategy: New hard, new medium
Nico: “It’s always frustrating to start right at the back
and I knew it was going to be difficult to come through the pack – even with a quick
car. I had a few good fights in the race – so from that point of view it was fun,
but I was struggling with my brakes from lap one with a long pedal and I lost more
performance as the race went on. Towards the end it became a safety concern so we decided
to retire the car. It’s not been a particularly memorable weekend for me, but at
least the team scored some points with the other car.”
Dr Vijay Mallya, Team Principal & Managing Director
“I think we made the most of a challenging race today. Despite the speed we
showed yesterday, we did not have the race pace early on to fight the cars ahead of us. So
all considered I’m pleased to see Paul come home eighth and score four points. The
one-stop strategy worked well for us and the car was coming on strong in the closing
stages of the race. We were a bit fortunate with some retirements, but we were in the
right place to maximise the opportunities. Nico's difficult weekend continued as he
suffered with brake issues all afternoon. He made some progress early in the race, but as
the brake problem deteriorated there was no choice but to retire the car.”
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