Formula 1 news

Sutil shines with third on Friday

Adrian Sutil was star of the show on track at Silverstone on Friday, placing his Force India in third position in the second practice session. With the German having finished eleventh, one place behind team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella in the morning session, the local team is hoping for a strong weekend at home.

Despite finishing over one and a half seconds down on Sebastian Vettel's fastest time in second practice, Sutil was the first non-Red Bull car on the day's final classification sheet. "Today went well as I was happy with the car the whole day," the 26-year-old said after a day of full dry running. "It was a bit surprising to be third in Free Practice 2 but it was a really good session and the best position so far this year on a Friday.

Sutil hopes to qualify in the top fifteen again on Saturday

"We ran through our programme, doing a lot of tyre work, and the long runs seem to be quite okay. The soft option (Bridgestone's softest compound tyre on offer this weekend - Soft - marked with a green stripe) goes off a little in the rear but should be fine on Sunday, so no real worries there.

"I don't think it's realistic to expect us to be third for qualifying, but everything is working really well and I am quite confident about making it through to Q2 again (for what would be the third consecutive race) - if we can do that again we'd be quite satisfied." The German's only slip-up of the day came after the session had finished, when driving over the front wing of team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella's car as it was being pushed back into the garage.

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