Force India eclipses Sauber in standings

Force India surpassed Sauber in the constructors’ standings after Paul di Resta managed to finish eighth at the Italian Grand Prix collecting a valuable four points for his team in the process.

The Hinwil-based outfit were left defenceless as both its drivers retired during the course of the 53-lap race making the task much easier for its rivals who worked hard for the finish.

“Of course I’m really happy to finish eighth after what hasn’t been the easiest of races,” di Resta said. “I think we extracted as much as we could because our ultimate lap time in race trim was not quite there. So it’s great to pick up four more points, which helps us move up a place in the championship.”

Adrian Sutil however failed to finish due to a hydraulic issue with the DRS line in the early stages of the race, leaving the onus of a good result to his teammate.

“The power steering went so I knew I had a problem,” the German said. “I tried to downshift into turn three and I couldn’t so I had to park the car. As we saw with Paul’s result, we missed out on getting two car in the points.”

The Sauber drivers were left licking their wounds after its double retirement with both Sergio Perez and Kamui Kobayashi ending their outings due to a problem with the gearbox.

“Despite our poor grid positions, we were doing well in the race, but then both of us retired, and that is tough,” Perez said. “I started 15th and our race strategy was to do a very long stint on the harder tyres - the medium compound - and in the end only a short stint on the soft tyres. From lap 20 I had been in seventh.

“I had a gap in front and one behind, so it all looked good, but then first of all I could not use third gear and then after that couldn’t shift in any gear. We missed a great opportunity to score points,” the Mexican pointed out.

Team principal Peter Sauber added that cars were quick enough to score at Monza.

“We deliberately put all our focus on the race, accepting that this would compromise our qualifying performance,” Sauber said. “Our performance proved that this approach worked out perfectly. We were faster than our direct competitors.”

Force India is now sixth in the table, a solitary point ahead of Sauber with six Grands Prix remaining in the season

Source: f1pulse.com