Force India hoping for maiden points in Montreal

An encore of the Monte Carlo show won’t be easy at the Gilles Villeneuve circuit here but with Adrian Sutil bubbling with confidence and Giancarlo Fisichella boasting of an enviable record, the mood in the Force India camp is quite upbeat ahead of Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix.

Sutil established his credentials as a wet weather driver in Monte Carlo and looked destined for a fourth-place finish before Kimi Raikkonen slammed into his car in a Ferrari. Fisichella can also take heart from the fact that Montreal has always been his happy hunting ground, with four podium finishes in as many years, from 1997 to 2000, besides two fourth-place finishes.

Chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne said they were hoping for a point or two. “Both drivers like the track and Giancarlo in particular has had some good results there, so we should look to run with the mid-field again and, if as we saw in Monaco, conditions are right, we could even pick up a point or two,” Gascoyne said.

Sutil, meanwhile, said he had put the Monaco mishap behind him. “I was frustrated and upset, but now it’s really motivated me to prove that Monaco was not a one-off. I said after Turkey that I just wanted to have a good weekend, and we really nailed it in Monaco,” he said.