(Sahara Force India Formula One Team)
The Sahara Force India Formula One Team had a very strong
performance in qualifying for Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix, round 6 of the 2015
Formula One world championship as Sergio ‘Checco’ Perez will start the race
from 7th place while his team mate Nico Hulkenberg who qualified in
11th place is expected to start the event from eleventh place due to
a five place grid penalty for Romain Grosjean in the Lotus.
The Sahara Force India Formula One Team have endured a
difficult start to their 2015 campaign and are currently in 8th
place on eleven points. Speaking following the day’s action Sergio ‘Checco’
Perez commented by saying:
‘I’m really happy and excited with seventh place
today. I always say qualifying in Monaco counts for 90% of your final result,
so it was important to be strong. To be quick here you need confidence in the
car and in yourself, and I had both today. To make it through to Q3 was already
a great effort by the team, but to be starting P7 means we have already done a
lot of the hard work for the race. We went out early in Q3 because we thought
the rain was coming and I had a mega lap. I was worried some of the others
might improve their times, especially with the track evolution, but fortunately
it was not the case. Tomorrow we have a good opportunity to score some
important points. We know that anything can happen on a Sunday in Monaco, but
I’m focussed on getting a clean start and a good first lap.’
The Mexican set a fastest time of 1m 16.808s. Nico
Hulkenberg will start the race from eleventh place on the grid with a time of
1m 17.193s. Speaking following the session the German stated:
‘My final lap was a very good one and I believe I
could have been firmly in the top ten, but unfortunately I made a small mistake
in the final corner, which cost me enough time to miss out on Q3. Obviously it
is disappointing, especially knowing how important your starting position is
here. I am likely to be 11th on the grid, which means we will need to choose
the right strategy to try and make up some positions. If we make the right
calls tomorrow, we should be able to get some points. The brush with the wall in Q1 didn't do
any damage but it cost a lot in terms of rhythm: you spend a long time trying
to get the right confidence around Monaco and an incident like this sets you
back a little. Qualifying in Monaco is always a challenge, but one I really
enjoyed. The car feels much better than it did in Barcelona and we seem to have
more performance in our hands which is encouraging. Nevertheless, I expect a
tough race where good tyre management will be especially important.’
Sahara Force India Formula One Team Principal and Managing
Director, Dr Vijay Mallya commented saying:
‘Today's strong performance in qualifying is an
important boost for the team. Sergio’s laps were competitive right from the off
and he had the confidence to extract every fraction of a second from the car.
It’s an important result because track position is essential around here. Nico
also looked on course for a top ten qualifying position, but fell just short of
the mark: it is proof of how competitive the midfield is at the moment that one
small mistake can cost so many positions on the grid. Nonetheless, both drivers
seemed happy with the car and this gives us confidence for tomorrow. Overtaking
is hard on this track, but as this team has shown in previous years it can be
done. With an aggressive strategy we should be able to target points for both
cars.’
© Ben Johnston 2015
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