23/05/2009
NEWS STORY
The Force India Formula One Team today enjoyed its best-ever qualifying performance in preparation for tomorrow's Monaco Grand Prix. For the first time since its World Championship debut in 2008, two Force India VJM02s made the cut for Q2. Giancarlo Fisichella will start the race in 13th position - his best starting position since the 2008 Italian Grand Prix - and Adrian Sutil from 15th, his highest-ever grid slot.
Adrian and Giancarlo were out on track early in Q1 and were well-placed to pass into Q2 when the session was stopped to remove Lewis Hamilton's McLaren that had stopped out on track following an brush with the guardrails. On the restart both Force India drivers then found gaps in the traffic to post their quickest laps, a 1min 16.248 for Adrian that placed him 15th and Giancarlo a 1min 16.063, the 13th quickest time.
In the second session both drivers completed two runs of two laps each. Giancarlo's quickest, 1min 16.146, put him 13th, three tenths from Q3, while Adrian's 1min 16.545 was 15th quickest.
Adrian Sutil: 'A very good qualifying for us, with two cars into Q2 for the first time ever. It feels a bit like a pole position for us, and it was fun to be able to do it. Everything came together, the team did a good job in the garage and I felt my lap was strong. It was difficult to do, with the traffic and then the stoppages, but it was a good run for us. Tomorrow I hope we will be able to fight in the midfield and try to get ahead of some people. The start could be a bit tricky, as it always is here, but I feel all set for tomorrow. We are really motivated now and are hoping for a good race.'
Giancarlo Fisichella: 'I think we can be really satisfied and very happy with the performance today. The team worked well and two cars in the top 15 is good: very encouraging. We did a good job together, we still have some work to do but the result shows we're going in the right direction. For tomorrow I want to get to the end of the race and let's see - this is Monaco, you never know what can happen.'
Dominic Harlow, chief race engineer: 'A good feeling to have opened our account for Q2 this season with both cars here in Monaco. The whole team has worked very hard for this event both at the factory and the circuit, and together with calm performances from the drivers in a hectic session we have showed some genuine performance. Q2 itself was tougher as the circuit improvement slowed, but points are realistically possible from where we will start tomorrow and we'll be doing our best to make this opportunity stick.'