Spa-Francorchamps: A double-points finish slipped out of Force India's hands as Adrian Sutil finished seventh and Paul di Resta 11th, just outside the points bracket, at the thrilling Belgian Grand Prix here on Sunday.
Nevertheless, it was a brilliant race for both the drivers as they overcame poor grid position, with Sutil eventually earning six points for the side.
It looked like a top-10 finish for Resta too, but with just six laps to go, the Scott driver surrendered his 10th position as Ferrari's Felipe Massa and Williams' Pastor Maldonado pushed him to 11th.
Sutil raced consistently well to gain eight positions after starting 15th on the grid while Resta also did well by moving to 11th from 18th.
It was a one-two finish for Red Bull with defending champion Sebastian Vettel winning the race from Pole position and Mark Webber finishing second. McLaren's Jenson Button was third.
Both the Force India drivers sneaked into the top-10 within the first six laps with Sutil zooming up to seven and Resta to number nine.
Sutil conceded his place to Renault's Vitaly Petrov soon but an intriguing three-way tussle between Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, Red Bull's Mark Webber and Force India was in store in lap number 10.
Alonso, coming out of pits, was eighth and he deployed the DRS technique quite effectively, edging past both Webber and Sutil to take sixth position.
In another two laps, Resta moved to eighth just behind Sutil.
In the next lap, McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, while trying to pass Kamui Kobaysahi, collided with the Sauber racer and smacked into the barriers. The Briton's race was over.
The safety car was on the track for four laps and Sutil moved into the pits, taking advantage of the situation. He joined the race in sixth position while Resta was 13th.
Before the half-way mark four racers, including Toro Rosso's drivers, had crashed out. And in total five drivers failed to finish the race.
Jenson Button was right behind Sutil and the Force India driver gave in to the McLaren driver, who used DRS to good effect.
Sutil maintained his seventh position till the end of the race. Resta had re-entered the top-10 when Massa suffered a puncture in his car in lap 30 and was forced into the pit lane.
Comments
0 comment