Spanish GP team-by-team: Force India

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More points for Sutil, more woe for Liuzzi at Force India.

Adrian SutilVitantonio Liuzzi
Qualifying position1116
Qualifying time comparison (Q2)1’21.985 (-0.869)1’22.854
Race position715
Average race lap1’28.137 (-1.081)1’29.218
Laps66/6664/66
Pit stops11
Spanish Grand Prix lap times - Force India (click to enlarge)

Adrian Sutil

Sutil extended his run of qualifying victories over his team mate to 5-0, but failed to reach Q3 for the first time this year.

However he made up three places at the start and, despite leaving his pit stop late, managed to hold on to eighth place. With Robert Kubica unable to pass him, Sutil was seventh at the flag.

Compare Adrian Sutil’s form against his team mate in 2010

Vitantonio Liuzzi

Liuzzi was once again some way off his team mate’s pace in qualifying. He also lost ground at his pit stop and was running outside the points when his engine failed with two laps to go. Here’s his verdict on the race:

I lost a little time getting away from the pit stop but then the balance with the hard tyres was getting better. By that point though we had got caught in the traffic because of the faster cars coming by. Once they had all gone and we got some clean laps we could show a decent pace so we can be quite happy at this aspect.
Vitantonio Liuzzi

But the lap time chart (above) shows he only really got on Sutil’s pace at the very end of the race.

Compare Vitantonio Liuzzi’s form against his team mate in 2010

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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8 comments on “Spanish GP team-by-team: Force India”

  1. I’m going to defend Liuzzi here. Sure, he’s not doing as well as Sutil, but Adrian’s been in the team for 3 years straight. Liuzzi only came back to F1 in the last quarter of 2009. Liuzzi at least also has some points on the board – he’s not a Bourdais or Piquet.

    di Resta might be doing better in practice, but since when was practice the ultimate arbiter of speed?

    1. > since when was practice the ultimate arbiter of speed?

      It’s not – but I hope you would concede that it’s reasonable to expect that the first and second choice drivers are faster than the third driver.

      1. And being almost 0.9 of a second off the pace of your teammate is a bit much. People are worried about Nico and Micheal and about Massa when the are half a second less of the pace of their faster teammate. Okay not the same situation, but Liuzzi does need to not let the threat of Di Resta get to him and instead work those clean laps. Monaco does not seem like the best place to get that right though.

  2. I hope they give Liuzii some time to get into his groove. He did pick up nice points when Adrian ran into trouble, so he did the job and his pace is OK after he was running in clean air.
    Sutil is improving, showing he can end races instead of crashing out. Maybe it helps Trulli is a lot further behind and Kimi isn’t here anymore!
    What can he show in a wet Monaco next weekend?

  3. even FI boss vijay mallaya has said that liuzzi dint get a nice outing during his free practice which made this race a lot more difficult…..for sure if he does not perform in the next few races he ll be replaced by di resta…
    and coming to sutil… with some fortune i expect him to be in the top 5 along with R.kubica… which is possible and interesting……

    1. sutil and kubica in the top 5 for the next race(monaco)

      1. If the weather is wet indeed!

  4. Any predictions on the Monaco weather…

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