Formula One news

Pointless race for Force India

The Force India Formula One Team's Giancarlo Fisichella has finished a clean if uneventful Chinese Grand Prix in 17th position. The Italian gained three places from his starting position with a consistent and measured drive from start to finish. Team-mate Adrian Sutil was unfortunate not to take the chequered flag when he was hit by a gearbox problem on lap 14 of the 56 lap Grand Prix. 

"Very early on in the race my car developed a problem," said Sutil. "I couldn't select gears anymore and had to pull off just before the main straight and park the car. Until that point I was quite happy in the car, even though the traction and grip was very low so it's disappointing not to finish yet again. I really hope for more in Brazil now."

Giancarlo Fisichella commented, "We knew our pace was not really good enough today so we just tried to find a different solution to gain places. We went for a one stop strategy but I was really struggling with the grip to start with. In the last 10 laps before the end of the race I was able to do reasonable lap times, but it was a fairly lonely race for me at that point. Anyway, we now go onto Brazil and the last race."

Mike Gascoyne, chief technical officer added, "It was disappointing not to get two cars to the finish today, but Giancarlo did a good job to get the car home in what's been a difficult event for us. Adrian was on a two stop strategy but unfortunately had a failure, which we believe was an electronic matter related to the gearbox. Giancarlo was on a one stop strategy and while the first stint on the harder tyre was OK, with the lapping in the second stint he couldn't really improve his position. We'll now move onto the final race and hope to be more competitive there."

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