iSport F1 Pitstop: Force India is having a dream season in 2010. iSporter Prasad Rao gives us account of their super performance in the Monaco GP.
After a decent performance in Spain, there was hardly any time to settle down for Monaco Grand Prix as it was just a week away. However, that wasn’t much of trouble for Force India. Their car was faster than before, the drivers more confident of a good showing, better reliability and a team full of positivity masterfully led forward by their dynamic boss Dr. Vijay Mallya.
On a circuit which is known for almost no overtaking, qualifying would play a pivotal role. Practice sessions were not very eventful for Force India, and timings were pretty decent. In Saturday’s qualifying, Italian Tonio Liuzzi finished in the 10th position with timing of 1 minute 15.170 seconds in Q3. German Adrian Sutil couldn’t make it to Q3 and finished Q2 with a timing of 1 min 15.318 seconds to place himself on 12th position on the grid. Red Bull racer and eventual winner, Mark Webber was on pole position.
Sunday began with a hope to see some good racing especially since this track was Sutil’s favorite and the one where Liuzzi has always performed well in his juniour formula days. Sutil had a really great start and made up two positions on the first lap to get on 10th. He had a good first stop where the German went on to gain another position to be 9th and from there was Sutil’s own race. Though, quite a lonely race with a big gap most of the time to the car in front and the car behind; so Sutil just paced himself during the race. The FIF1 car showed some good balance towards the end when the grip levels increased. Overall Sutil had a great race and was pretty happy with ninth position and a few points.
For Liuzzi, unlike Sutil, it was quite a difficult race with a lot of incidents and safety car periods to deal with. Liuzzi started in 10th and gained a position to 9th before the first pit stop. Liuzzi wasn’t happy with the team’s decision to stop a couple of laps early for tyre changes, which allowed Sutil to pass him when he came in. During the latter part of the race, there was a huge gap between Luizzi in 10th and his team-mate Sutil in 9th, which also meant that Luizzi had to contend with his 10th place finish and the one championship point that came alongwith it.
Overall as a team it was a very satisfying experience as both the cars finished in the top ten and consequently in the points. It is good for the overall morale of the team especially after a good start to a season wherein they finished only one race out of the points. Also, some good news came to the Force India camp as an icing on the cake at expense of Michael Schumacher. Due to Schumacher’s 20 seconds penalty, both the FIF1 drivers gained one place on the final order – Sutil, 8th position and Liuzzi, 9th.
For Force India, it was a great race to remember where they not only registered two strong points scoring finishes, but also out-paced their on-track rivals Williams. While Renault is still some distance away, with the hard work and technical upgrades on the FIF1 car, I am hoping that they catch the French manufacturer sooner rather than later this season.
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