F1 Hungarian Grand Prix: Vijay Mallya Impressed by Paul di Resta's Race Strategy

Modified Aug 01, 2011 06:14 GMT

The Team Principal of Force India, Dr.Vijay Mallya

The 2011 F1 Hungarian Grand Prix turned out to be a happy hunting ground for the Force India Mercedes team, as Paul di Resta finished in an impressive seventh position to gather 6 vital points for the team in the constructors championship. With 26 championship points in the bag after 11 races, Force India are currently seventh in the table.

There is a 9 points gap between sixth placed Sauber (35 points) and are 4 points ahead of Torro Rosso (22 points). With eight races still to go before the conclusion of the 2011 Formula 1 season, Dr.Vijay Mallya’s team is in a comfortable position to challenge Sauber for sixth position in the constructors championship. It has to be noted that the Force India Mercedes team finished seventh in last years championship securing 68 points after 19 races.

Speaking on the team’s impressive performance at the Hungarian Grand Prix, Dr. Vijay Mallya, team principal was quoted saying,

“Once again I am pleased that we have come away with six important points to consolidate our position in the constructors’ championship. Paul drove an excellent race, didn’t put a foot wrong and really deserves this result. He also made the right call on the tyres when the rain returned because it wasn’t clear whether we should switch to the intermediates. Paul’s decision to stay out on the prime tyres really paid off. Adrian’s race was compromised on the opening lap and although we tried to bring him back into contention for points, things didn’t go his way today. Overall we can be happy with our performance this weekend and can go into the summer break optimistic for the remainder of the season.”

Paul di Resta

Young Scot Paul di Resta, who had the best finish of the season as well as the best of his short F1 career, said that he was pleased with the way the race went for him. He was quoted saying,

“I’m very happy with the seventh place today. It was quite a mixed race with rain at the beginning, but I made a good start and felt comfortable in the conditions. Then it was a matter of which tyres to choose. We went to supersofts for the middle two stints, and then ended the race on the primes. We lost track position at the last stop, but I was able to pick through the cars and get back up to seventh place in the final few laps. Finishing seventh is the best way to respond after a series of races where, for various reasons, we didn’t get the results that were possible. So it’s nice to go into the summer break with a smile on my face having scored points that are so important for our position in the championship.”

Adrian Sutil finished a disappointing 14th this week

The team’s no.1 driver, Adrian Sutil was disappointed and blamed his first lap error for his 14th place finish. He was quoted saying,

“It wasn’t a particularly good start for me and my chance of points ended on the first lap when I locked up the rear into the chicane. I was right behind Paul and to avoid an accident I had to go off the track and lost a lot of positions. After that, it was a case of trying to recover what we could and so when it started raining in the middle of the race we immediately switched to intermediates. We were running outside the points at the time so we felt it was worth the gamble. But there was not enough rain so I had to switch back to the option tyre a few laps later. It’s a shame not to convert the strong qualifying into points, but I’m pleased for Paul and the team with his result today.”

Let us hope that Force India can repeat their dominant performance at the Hungaroring in the upcoming races too.