Saturday, 18 April 2015

Best qualifying of the season for the Sahara Force India Formula One Team

(Sahara Force India Formula One Team)

The Sahara Force India Formula One Team’s Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio ‘Checco’ Perez secured their best qualifying positions of the season today ahead of tomorrow’s Bahrain Grand Prix night race where last season Sergio Perez secured a podium finish when he ended the race in third place. Nico Hulkenberg will start tomorrow’s race from inside the top ten in eighth place.

Speaking following the session Hulkenberg stated:

P8 – I’m happy with that. I think we extracted the most we could from the car today. Overnight we made some good tweaks to the set-up and that helped, especially in these slightly cooler temperatures. It was quite windy, but it didn’t impact on us too badly and all of my laps were pretty good. Points will be the goal tomorrow, but it won’t be easy because there are a lot of quick cars behind us and they will put pressure on us. We need to make the best of the car we have and hopefully come away with a good result. Bahrain always produces good racing with the DRS zones and tyre degradation will be an important factor in the ace. Whatever happens, we are ready for the fight.

Sergio ‘Checco’ Perez was unfortunate to just miss out on a place in the top ten shoot out and will start the race from 11th on the grid. Speaking following the session the Mexican stated:

Even though I’m frustrated at missing out on Q3 by just a few hundredths of a second, I think we can be satisfied about the big step forward today. It would have been an amazing result to have both cars in the top ten, but eleventh on the grid is something we can be happy about and it’s the result of a massive effort by everyone in the team. Today both our car and the track characteristics played into our hands, possibly more than we were anticipating. This result is also a matter of learning the best way to set up this car. The sixth row is a good place to start and I’m optimistic about getting some good points tomorrow. We have shown to be pretty good around here: we had strong pace during our longer runs yesterday and this should give us a chance of a strong result.

The Silverstone based outfit have a major upgrade package which should be introduced ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix as there will be an in season test following the race at the Red Bull Ring. Speaking ahead of Sunday’s race, Sahara Force India Formula One deputy Team Principal Robert Fernley commented by saying:

Today's qualifying result is a very positive step in the right direction. It was encouraging to see us nearly placing two cars in the top ten and, even though we just missed out with Sergio, we can be proud of this effort: the drivers extracted everything that the car could offer and they put together some excellent laps. We must not get carried away as we know that our car is particularly suited to this track, but we are confident for tomorrow. Starting in P8 and P11 gives us a good shot at scoring points, so it will be important to do a good job tonight and be prepared for tomorrow's race. Our pace looked solid in practice and we will need to ensure our strategy gives us the opportunity to make the best of it: the midfield is very competitive so it won't be an easy job, but we're ready for it.

© Ben Johnston 2015 

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