(Sahara Force India Formula One Team)
The Sahara Force India Formula One Team have moved up to second in the Constructors championship following a superb Bahrain Grand Prix for the Silverstone based outfit which saw them secure their first podium finish since the 2009 Belgian Grand Prix along with a fifth place finish.
Sergio Perez, who joined the team from McLaren for 2014 was left disappointed last weekend after he was unable to make the start of the race in Malaysia as a result of a gearbox problem. The Mexican made up for this in qualifying yesterday as he qualified in fourth place starting third thanks to Daniel Ricciardo's ten place grid penalty.
He had a great battle with his team mate Nico Hulkenberg as the pair traded position's throughout the extremely exciting Bahrain night race to claim his first podium since 2012. Nico Hulkenberg drove a fantastic race too to carve his way through the field to finish the fifth place, making it three top ten finishes in the first three Grand Prix of the season.
The Hulk has now moved into third place in the Constructors championship on 28 point's two ahead of Ferrari's Fernando Alonso who finished the race in 9th place.
Speaking after the race Sergio Perez said:
'This podium is an amazing achievement and one of the most special results in my whole career. This is a massive confidence boost, especially after the very hard season I had last year, and it was the hardest-fought podium I ever had. It was an amazing feeling to cross the line because the last few laps were very difficult. I had to keep up the pace and I knew the Red Bulls were coming. In the end we managed to stay ahead and score this very special result in only my third race with the team. I also had a great fight with my teammate during the whole race. When he got ahead of me after the first stop, I tried to keep my head down to get back ahead. I managed to do that when we were fighting with the Williams and that was the crucial moment'.
Nico Hulkenberg, was also delighted with his performance under the light's. The German said:
'It’s a great day for the team and I’m very happy for the guys. The battle with Checo was very clean and fair, and when you’re fighting for the podium you give everything but always stay within the lines. It was good fun. The end of the race was hard because I had to battle from the moment the safety car came in until the end of the race. I was behind Checo and I felt I had a little more pace, but I was in dirty air and that caused me to struggle towards the end. I held back Ricciardo for as long as I could and I managed to stay ahead of Vettel. It’s a great achievement for the team and we’ve shown once again that we are competitive so hopefully we can keep up the momentum in China'.
Force India entered Formula One in 2008 and secured their first podium at the 2009 Belgian GrandPrix when Giancarlo Fisichella finished in second place behind Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen after starting the race from pole position. Speaking about the result today, team principal and managing director of Sahara Force India Dr Vijay Mallya said:
'Today is one of the greatest days in the history of our team. It’s been a long time coming, but it’s very satisfying to see Sahara Force India back on the podium after so many near misses in recent years. We have a great driver line-up and today we saw both Checo and Nico at their best as they battled for a place on the podium. Without the safety car our two-stop strategies would have been much more comfortable because we faced a strong assault from the Red Bulls in the closing stages. Nico did a fantastic job to keep them back for so long and hold on to fifth place. It gave Checo the breathing space he needed to secure third place. So I’m extremely proud of everyone in the team and congratulate all of them on this achievement. 2014 is a new chance and we have shown we're moving forward in Australia, Malaysia and here. I couldn't be happier'.
(Sahara Force India Formula One Team)
It will be interesting to see what the team can do at the next race in China which takes place from April 18 - 20. The team will now stay on at the Bahrain International circuit to conduct two day's of testing.
DON'T FORGET:
Are you a Nico Hulkenberg fan? If so then this is something special for you. Team Nico Hulkenberg a fan twitter page dedicated to 'The Hulk' are running project and need your help. So what are they looking for? Well if you would like to share how much you support Hulkenberg and are on Twitter then follow this link: https://twitter.com/TeamHulkenberg/status/448523586043920385/photo/1
The deadline for submissions is Sunday 27th April.
©Ben Johnston 2014
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