iSport's F1 Pitstop: Force India Formula1 scored points in their first race of the 2010 season. A jubiliant Force India fan Prasad Rao celebrates on iSport.
Bahrain Grand Prix was a magnificent curtain raiser for the new season of Formula One. Michael Schumacher’s comeback was the most anticipated moment. The race weekend began all quiet but with a lot of surprises in the store. The fast practice session timings registered by both Force India drivers German Adrian Sutil & Italian Vitantonio Liuzzi were not at all surprising. This is because Force India is no longer a minnow’s team in Formula One and the expectations are just not optimistic but matter of fact. At the starting grid Sutil was placed in the tenth position whereas Liuzzi was in the twelfth position.
Ever optimistic Dr. Vijay Mallya, the team principal of Force India, had promised a good display by his team to all the fans. Plenty of South-east Asians & Indians in Bahrain flocked the Sakhir circuit to witness the inaugural race of the season and cheer for Force India. The race started with loads of anxiety and excitement. However, grief struck Force India team in the very first lap. Sutil spun on the first lap when a cloud of smoke from the back of Mark Webber’s car completely blocked his vision and he made light contact with Robert Kubica. This incident was enough to push him to the back of the grid. Having slipped to the rear of the field it was going to be ever so difficult for the German to fight for glory. However, the never-say-die attitude of Sutil; who is man of all praise for Mallya, exhibited a brilliant on-track performance. Sutil pushed hard to make up several places and was closing on the top ten in the latter stages of the race. His only consolation – clocking the second quickest lap of the race. Sutil was unfortunate to finish out of the points in 12th position.
Vitantonio Liuzzio started at 12th position on the grid and put up a decent show to finish in the ninth position. This meant that Force India scored two points in the opening race of the season itself. It was completely a flawless drive by the Italian and he was successful in proving his mettle to his traitors. Liuzzi had to fight with Barrichello, Button, Webber & Kubica constantly. His car supported him well with the power and pace to match the speed of the Red Bull, McLaren and Mercedes cars. This is a signal that Force India car might just get competitive race by race. Liuzzi made a great start and, despite the failure of his adjustable front wing and the resultant understeer, managed his tyres superbly in the opening stint and then ran swiftly on the super-softs in the second half. He deserved his two points for ninth after a smooth run.
Ferrari had a one-two finish, with the Spaniard Alonso winning the race from Brazilian team-mate Massa. Alonso clocked the fastest lap of the race in 1 min 58.253 seconds. Sutil surprisingly clocked the second fastest timing 1 min 59.393 seconds. It was a little too late for Sutil but the best takeaway for Mallya’s team was that both his drivers were able to match the pace of Mercedes & Mclaren and even bettered their timings. Liuzzi had his best lap timing of 1 min59.906 seconds which was seventh fastest. Force India will have to work on bettering the qualifying timings in the forthcoming races. It was very important to have a good starting position here as overtaking was very difficult. Also higher track temperatures & the new tyre rules didn’t do any justice to the drivers. But this is just a start, all teams would learn from their mistakes. The one who learns early shall benefit the most.
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