Force India satisfied with double points finish at Valencia

Force India are greatly satisfied with their double points finish at this afternoon’s European Grand Prix, after Nico Hulkenberg and Paul di Resta came home 5th and 7th respectively after a very competitive race weekend for the Silverstone-based team. Although the two drivers struggled towards the end of the race with severe tyre degradation, they were both able to finish within the points in a highly chaotic last few laps. The two Force India drivers started the race 8th and 9th respectively, after reaping the rewards with a visibly faster car in comparison to previous races.

“A great result for everyone in the team today and for me personally.” Commented Nico Hulkenberg, “Fifth place is a great achievement after a very long and difficult race. The two-stop strategy worked well, but the last stint was very long and it was hard to hold off the cars behind me on fresher tyres in the last few laps. So the race was a bit messy at times, but very entertaining and it feels great to come through and score such a good result for the team.”

Before the race weekend, Nico Hulkenberg explained how he was not entirely happy with how the first part of his return to F1 had gone. He stipulated that decent results needed to be scored by himself, and he has fulfilled that necessity today and will be eager to continue his competitiveness throughout the British Grand Prix next time out. Paul di Resta has finished in every race of the season so far, and did so once again in today’s race.

“We went very aggressive by only stopping once and in fact we were the only car to pull off this strategy.” Explained Paul di Resta, “Of course, when you’re stopping once you really don’t want a safety car period and it certainly hurt my race and cost me some track position. On the whole our relative pace through the race was strong, but it was hard to keep the tyre performance towards the end and I was really fighting the car in the closing laps. There was some attrition ahead of us, but we were there to pick up the points when it mattered.”

With Force India one of the only midfield teams to not really shine so far in 2012, unlike Sauber and Williams, the Silverstone-based outfit will undeniably be striving for another competitive race result at their home race at Silverstone next time out.

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