Sixth place finish is our priority: Mallya

New Delhi: With five more races to round off the season, Force India team principal Vijay Mallya on Monday said the Silverstone-based outfit's priority now is to cling on to the sixth position in the constructor's championship ahead of Williams.

Mallya, who is also the chairman of the team, said Force India would be looking to consolidate their position in their next race in Singapore, which the team considers its second home.

"We certainly want to hang on to sixth place in the World Championship, and not let Williams get past us. That clearly is a priority," he said ahead of the Sunday night's Singapore Grand Prix.

"For personal reasons we'd love to do well in Singapore as well, there's a huge Indian community, a huge amount of excitement. Force India would love to score a result that consolidates our position in the championship on what we consider to be our second 'home' territory," Mallya said.

The Force India owner was of the view that his team was unlucky not to have scored points in Monza but said with so much to play for there was no time to look back at the past.

"We were of course all hoping to score some points in Monza, but we were very unlucky in qualifying.

"Yet with so much to play for in this part of the season we can't look backwards at missed opportunities. We have to make the most of the chances coming up," Mallya insisted.

Force India driver Adrian Sutil echoed Mallya's views and said the team would be eyeing to return to points bracket in Singapore.

"Points have got to be the aim this time. Williams had a great event in Italy and really closed the gap with us, so we need as many points as we can.

"There are only a couple of overtaking places so qualifying is crucial and we'll be looking to get the whole package right from practice so that we can optimise our position for the start," the German said.

Sutil's fellow driver Vitantonio Liuzzi too said that they would go into Sunday's race with only sixth-place finish in mind.

"With this in mind we can go to Singapore knowing we are still very competitive and can take the fight to Williams for sixth," Liuzzi said.