After their tyre blunder in Hockenheim Force India managed to make a similar mistake in the first practice session, sending reserve driver Paul di Resta out on the wrong rubber, and were fined.
The had more problems in the pits on race day but on this occasion they were completely blameless.
| Adrian Sutil | Vitantonio Liuzzi | |
| Qualifying position | 13 | 16 |
| Qualifying time comparison (Q2) | 1’21.517 (-0.41) | 1’21.927 |
| Race position | 13 | |
| Average race lap | 1’30.297 (+1.929) | 1’28.368 |
| Laps | 15/70 | 69/70 |
| Pit stops | 0 | 1 |
Open lap times interactive chart in new window
Adrian Sutil
Force India’s difficulties with the softer tyres continue: Sutil has now qualified outside the top ten in seven of the last eight races having reached Q3 in all of the first four.
Ran behind Pedro de la Rosa until his fateful pit stop when he was rammed by Robert Kubica and had to retire.
Compare Adrian Sutil’s form against his team mate in 2010
Vitantonio Liuzzi
A faulty driveshaft boot (which stops grease leaking from the driveshaft) kept Liuzzi from getting any running on the super-soft tyre in final practice. That was just one of the reasons why Liuzzi felt he could have qualified better:
Unfortunately I hit traffic in Q2 and didn’t get a clear lap, and then lost the rear in the last corner on my last lap. I was more than half a second faster until that point so we could have got a much better position for the start.
Vitantonio Liuzzi
Liuzzi damaged the front-left part of his wing at the first corner on lap one, but more of the wing broke off at turn 11 later in the race. This brought out the safety car while he was already in the pits having his front wing replaced.
That cost him enough time to drop behind Jarno Trulli’s Lotus, which he had to pass after the safety car came in.
He moved up to 13th but was unable to pass Sebastien Buemi even when the Toro Rosso driver’s lap times began to drop off from lap 41.
Compare Vitantonio Liuzzi’s form against his team mate in 2010
2010 Hungarian Grand Prix
US_Peter
2nd August 2010, 0:45
Is Force India’s relatively small budget just not able to develop at the same rate, or did they really suffer some serious setbacks when key members left the team? At the start of the season it really seemed that they were strongly in the number 5 spot, now they’ve don’t even have half the points Renault do and are quickly going to be leapfrogged by Williams at this rate.
Felipe Bomeny (@portugoose)
2nd August 2010, 0:49
Even Sauber has a chance of leapfrogging Force India at this rate!
wasiF1 (@wasif1)
2nd August 2010, 5:57
Force India don’t have the biggest budget, I think they have the same money just as Williams & Sauber but that P6 now looking a threat to them as both the other two teams are catching them really fast.
I don’t think that they will be good in the next two races as they were last year.
BasCB (@bascb)
2nd August 2010, 8:42
I suppose their budget is more or less in line with Williams, and a bit better than Sauber while Renault have some more money available.
With a tightly planned budget, the move by quite a large part of the tech team must have hurt them.
And it might have effected their race organisation, if judged by errors with tyres in the last 2 races.
In Spa their car might be a lot more on the pace though (and the EDB package might work for them), i expect them to take the fight to Williams for 5th until the end of the year.
Dev
2nd August 2010, 16:16
i think they are again developing cars for low downforce kind of tracks… last year i predicted this correctly cause i saw they were quick on the straight and they hardly improved in the corners overall in 2009.. they just kept reducing drag on the car entire year…
maybe they are going for a similar strategy.. they must be eying big points for SPA & Monza
Steph90 (@steph90)
2nd August 2010, 11:49
“Unfortunately I hit traffic in Q2 ” Oh dear God, he should just have that printed on his overalls then he won’t have to keep repeating himself. If he doesn’t want traffic he should time his runs better.
Liuzzi was mostly unlucky this weekend with his car which is a shame for him with the pressure on his seat but I’m really running out of sympathy for him.
Vikas
3rd August 2010, 17:13
Agree Steph, Liuzzi needs to up his pace quite a lot. And these excuses aren’t doing him any good
manatcna
3rd August 2010, 1:44
Take the fight to Williams for 5th?
Are you serious?
Vikas
3rd August 2010, 17:15
I believe they will, the next couple of tracks are those that are in Force India’s favour… anything could happen.
manB
4th August 2010, 7:13
Next two tracks will put FI in strong position to defend its 5th place. Liuzzi need to step up on these two tracks at least just to support Sutil.
For next year I wud like to see Heidfield, or get in chandok(being an indian fan i wud like to see him in indian car for indian gp next year) which wud bring some indian sponsors and indian fans
if they can catch indian market, that wud be great for F1