Force India notch up best result

Force India came tantalisingly close to scoring their maiden point with Adrian Sutil and Giancarlo Fisichella...

Force India came tantalisingly close to scoring their maiden point with Adrian Sutil and Giancarlo Fisichella benefitting a rung each from Jarno Trullis safety car infringement to finish ninth and 11th respectively.

Sutil initially finished 10th and Fisichella 12th in the roller-coaster season opener but Toyotas Jarno Trulli,who had finished third,subsequently lost his podium place after the stewards slapped a 25-second penalty on him for passing under the safety car in the closing laps.

It turned out to be Force Indias best result since their 2008 debut. Running fourth when the first safety car was deployed,Fisichella looked set to score Force Indias first F1 points in the season opener before a pit-stop blunder undid his good work. The Italian missed the stop mark and the Force India crew had to manually push him back to the pit box and the precious time lost saw him rejoin the race in 14th position. Im very disappointed with the mistake I made in the pit stop. I was confused with last year as we were always in last slot in the pit lane,so I just overshot, a dejected Fisichella said.

Consistent display

Sutil,meanwhile,found himself tangled in the first lap,losing part of his front wing and limping into the pit. Having dropped to the rear of the field,the German nevertheless drove a measured,consistent race to claim his best result in over a year.

I had a good start but in the first corner,I think Webber slowed down and there was nowhere I could go. I damaged my front wing and had to get the car back to the pits. After the first safety car,everything was fine we had a good strategy with a short stint on the soft tyres in the middle. On the restart I could get past a few cars and then on the hard tyre it went really well. I could finish in 10th position I think we can be happy with this, said Sutil.