Formula One news

Impressive showing from Sutil

Adrian Sutil enjoyed a good day in Shanghai on Friday, as the German driver lapped the Chinese circuit a total of 48 times on his way to fourteenth position in morning practice, which was bettered by three places in the afternoon. With both Force India cars suffering from a number of spins and offs, the eventual results contrasted each other.

The Indian team, run by Kingfisher's Vijay Mallya, is yet to score since entering Formula One last year although, with Sutil performing particularly well on Friday, his boss's hopes of registering points on the board before the Spanish Grand Prix could be realised sooner than expected for his driver. "It is a change to be here at this time of year," Adrian said. "We are used to having around 30 degrees here (86 Fahrenheit) so, with the cooler temperatures, it's much easier to drive although the tyres take a bit longer to warm up. The medium tyres are okay over the longer run, but very hard over a single lap; the Super Soft, on the other hand, is fine for one lap and not as bad as we expected over the longer runs. Overall it went okay; we completed our work and the general balance is good - I'm pleased with the position, so I think it was a good start."

Team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella was not a happy man after the first day of running, however, as the Italian struggled to find a satisfying setup for the VJM02. "I'm not particularly happy with how today went," he admitted. "I am struggling with the car balance at the moment - it's not consistent just yet, and I don't feel entirely comfortable. At the moment we don't have a problem with the tyres, and in these temperatures we are pretty much okay; we have some ideas of what we can do, so I think we will improve for tomorrow."

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