22/08/2015
NEWS STORY
Sahara Force India delivered a strong qualifying performance in Spa-Francorchamps today with Sergio Perez setting the fifth fastest time ahead of Nico Hulkenberg in P11. Sergio is expected to start from fourth following a grid penalty for Romain Grosjean.
Sergio Perez: "It's been a really good day and I am very satisfied with my lap in Q3. We were able to improve the car balance from yesterday and this gave me a whole lot of confidence - probably the most I have had this season. The car was much more predictable and this allowed me to push more in every corner. I showed very good pace in each of the three qualifying sessions and I am really looking forward to the race tomorrow. I see no reason why we cannot fight for the podium. The performance today also gives me a lot of optimism for the remainder of the season. The team is doing an amazing job and I am happy I was able to back it up with a good performance behind the wheel. I have been working hard with my engineers to get on top of the updated car and I expect to do this weekend after weekend."
Nico Hülkenberg: "I'm not that happy today because we had the potential to be well inside the top ten. On my final lap in Q2 I made a small mistake going into turn one - I just locked the tyres and missed the apex. On top of that we had a small issue with the turbo, which cost us some speed and time down the straights. So I just missed out on making Q3. However, the weekend is not lost and I'm sure we can have a strong race from P11. The car has been performing very well this weekend; we've looked competitive and I will be attacking in the race to try and move forward."
Vijay Mallya, Team Principal and Managing Director: "It has been very satisfying to see the updated VJM08 looking so competitive here at Spa and Sergio delivered a fantastic performance today. Starting from the second row gives us every chance to score some good points tomorrow and even challenge for the podium. I'm sure Nico would have been up there too had he managed a clean lap, but I expect him to move up the order in the race. It's important that we convert the performance today into a strong result tomorrow."
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