Q&A with Adrian Sutil

Adrian Sutil started 11th at Silverstone and after a hard afternoon’s work for the Force India driver – including a stint on intermediate tyres at the start – he crossed the line still in 11th place, just 0.6s behind Jaime Alguersuari. Inevitably there was some disappointment as he ran eighth for a long time, and had looked set for a good helping of points. We asked Adrian about the British Granf Prix and his upcoming home race in Germany.

We know you like damp conditions. How was it on intermediates at the start?

“I gained a couple of places, but it was very difficult, with quite a lot of aquaplaning in the middle sector, while in the last sector it was pretty dry. We had to do quite a few laps with those tyres.”

You soon got up to eighth, behind Paul. Was it encouraging to be running so strongly?

“It looked good in the beginning and I was eighth on the first set of softs. But then we just stopped too early, and in the end we needed to do another stop, because we couldn’t make it to the end on a two-stop strategy. It was definitely possible to extend the first run a little bit longer. The tyre was going fine, and most of the people further back did a two-stop race. Points were possible, we had a good car, and I felt very good.”

There was a problem in Paul’s stop. Did you suffer because your tyres were brought out too early, and had perhaps cooled down?

“Maybe a little bit, but I couldn’t feel anything, it was still OK. Before the stop I was running behind him and he struggled a bit more with the tyres. I caught him and was right behind him. It was good for me that he went into the pits earlier, but I should have stayed out around five more laps.”

Did everything go OK for you as the race progressed?

“We had a bad stop, we lost a few seconds with a problem on the rear, they couldn’t put the nut on. I didn’t lose a position, but I lost track time. In the end I was closing up to Alguersuari and Schumacher, and probably with a couple more laps I could have passed them.”

You started 11th and finished 11th. How frustrating was it to run in the points but not get any?

“I was happier after the qualifying, which I thought was good. I had saved a set of tyres and I could really feel in the race that it was a big benefit. But we didn’t really use it. There was more in the car, absolutely.”