06/06/2009
NEWS STORY
The Force India Formula One Team secured a place in Q2 for the second consecutive event in qualifying for this weekend's Turkish Grand Prix. Adrian Sutil will start the race from 15th position for the second time this season following a brilliant opening session. Giancarlo Fisichella was unfortunately eliminated in Q1 and will line up for the 58 lap race in 19th.
Adrian completed two flying laps early on in Q1 and set his best time, 1:28.278, on his second run. Although he did not better the lap on his final outing, it was enough to make the grade for Q2, just over a tenth quicker than 16th placed world champion Lewis Hamilton. In the next session Adrian completed his initial laps on harder tyres before switching to the soft option for his final run. He set his quickest lap, 1:28.391, in the close of the session to end the day classified 15th, just a tenth from Heikki Kovalainen.
Giancarlo had a good start to the qualifying but was unlucky to miss out on a quicker lap when he had to abort his final - and potentially fastest - lap due to a yellow flagged corner. The Italian lines up 19th sandwiched between the two Toro Rossos.
Adrian Sutil: It was a really good qualifying session for us and I am very happy with the 15th place and Q2 again for the second race in a row. We didn't expect it as we had a few little issues in the weekend so far but we managed a good lap when it mattered. I am happy for the team and I think we can be really proud right now. I'm looking forward to a good race now tomorrow, we'll see what we can do.
Giancarlo Fisichella: I have had a problem with the brakes today and have had some front locking since this morning, but we made some changes between FP3 and qualifying that helped. Then unfortunately on my best lap there was a yellow flag as Piquet had spun and I had to lift off and couldn't get the time back. It was possible to be in the top 15, but there you go - sometimes it goes for you and others not. For sure the soft tyres are going to be a bit tricky tomorrow, especially in the heat, but I hope we can have a good race from where we are on the grid.
Dominic Harlow, chief race engineer: We're obviously very pleased to be in Q2 for the second event in a row with Adrian. He simply drove a very good and clean qualifying and showed how much our performance is improving now. Giancarlo had a brake system problem this morning that was still causing some consistency issues in qualifying and we need to look carefully at this before the race. He is also clearly fast enough to race in the midfield. A hot race is forecast with another different tyre performance scenario likely and we are looking forward to it.