25/10/2013
NEWS STORY
Sahara Force India began preparations for its home race today with Adrian Sutil, Paul Di Resta and James Calado all behind the wheel of the VJM06 at the Buddh International Circuit.
Adrian Sutil: "It has been quite a positive day with a more consistent car than in the previous few races. We made small adjustments, rather than big ones, and I think that was a sensible approach because the balance of the car felt quite good. There's still some room to improve, but I think we have some reasonable pace for tomorrow. We still need to tweak the car a little bit more tonight, but hopefully the work we've done today will allow us to be close to Q3 tomorrow. The main thing is that I'm feeling comfortable in the car."
Paul Di Resta: "I think it was a reasonable day. Although I missed FP1, I slowly but surely got the car to a position where I was feeling comfortable. We now need to make some decisions tonight to ensure we take the best way forward with the race in mind. In terms of our performance level, the car seems to be slightly more competitive than we were in Suzuka, which is encouraging."
James Calado: "I had driven this track before on the simulator, but my first proper experience was impressive. It's a fantastic venue and one of the most enjoyable tracks I've driven. The session was straightforward with tuning of the car and data collection. The grip levels were low to begin with, but I slowly built up my speed. I had a small spin on what probably would have been my fastest lap, but other than that it went very well."
Dr Vijay Mallya, Team Principal & Managing Director: "It's always a pleasure to see Formula One cars driving in India and, as always, the Buddh International Circuit looks fantastic. I was pleased with today's free practice performance and we have certainly fared better than the previous practice sessions in Korea or Japan. At this late stage of the season, the focus is simply on optimising the current package and making sure we race well, which is why we ran through various options today with our performance on Sunday remaining the priority."
Check out our Friday gallery, here.