 | « Back to article | Print this article |
Force India driver Adrian Sutil made it to the third qualifying session (Q3) once again and will start the Chinese Grand Prix 10th, while Karun Chandhok of Hispania will begin from the back of the grid.
It was a mixed qualifying session for Force India with Vitantonio Liuzzi getting caught in traffic and not prospering beyond the first qualifying session (Q1). The Italian will start 18th, eight places behind Sutil who made his fourth Q3 this season.
Karun starting from the back of the grid was more or less a certainty after the Indian F1 driver was handed a five-place grid penalty by the Shanghai race stewards for mending a broken seal on his gearbox in the absence of any FIA delegate.
But with Karun finishing qualifying at the back of the field in 24th, the penalty could not affect his grid position.
For force India, the onus would be on Sutil to stretch their point-scoring streak and the German seemed up to the task.
"Another Q3 qualifying performance for us, I think we can be very pleased with that," Sutil said.
"Again, it's P10 - I know this position very well from the last races in Australia and Bahrain! The car is behaving very well and we can be happy about the balance we have.
"It's a bit difficult in the mid sector though as the grip is missing a little bit so we have a touch of oversteer and it's hard to drive on the limit. However from the team's point of view we can look forward to the race tomorrow," he said.
Team-mate Liuzzi blamed the traffic for not making it to Q2 but said he would push for a good result on Sunday.
"Again for the third time in four races I got caught in traffic, again with a Williams and an HRT. But that's how it is, it happens, we have to look at why and then work on this," Liuzzi said.
"Tomorrow I think we are in great shape for the race as the speed has been there when we were on the longer runs but when you start in 18th place it makes life much more difficult. We are still optimistic though and we keep pushing whatever happens," added the Italian.