After all, Vijay Mallya was right. Giancarlo Fisichella’s exit did not affect Force India. In fact, it got better with Adrian Sutil and Vitantonio Liuzzi qualifying second at seventh respectively at the qualification for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza on Saturday.
It was for the first time both the Force India cars have qualified in the top 10. Fisichella, by the way, finished 14th with his new Ferrari. It has been a dramatic turnaround for Force India, who till mid-season break struggled to get into Q2, leave alone scoring points.
After the new aerodynamic upgrade, they were hoping to cement their place in Q2 but they have already exceeded the targets. The upgrades were introduced in Valencia and the results showed in Belgium where Mallya’s team collected its first points.
“After setting good pace throughout the weekend we wanted to fight for the pole position. We knew the car was up to it and that’s what we showed in qualifying today,” said Sutil.
“We have a great package, this circuit suits us very well as we have an incredible top speed and also a good down force package. So the efficiency of the car is really good,” he said.
If not for a minor glitch on his last lap, Sutil would have been on the pole. That wasn’t to be as Lewis Hamilton in his Mclaren pipped him by two-tenths of a second. Liuzzi, who was making a comeback after two years, didn’t disappoint the home fans qualifying seventh. “Two weeks ago I didn’t expect to be on the grid so this is a fantastic result — better than we expected.”
