Formula One news

Mallya: Singapore worst of final four

Force India's Vijay Mallya is confident that his team can return to its top ten ways for the final three Grands Prix of the season, despite an off-form run in Singapore last weekend. The Indian blames the high-downforce nature of the street circuit, the last of such a kind this season.

Sutil was fined following a collision with Nick Heidfeld

With the Silverstone-located team having made leaps and bounds to finish second and fourth - courtesy of Giancarlo Fisichella and Adrian Sutil respectively - in the Belgian and Italian Grands Prix, the layout of the night race track provided an entirely different challenge.

"We knew that, after the results of Spa and Monza, we had set a high expectation for ourselves but we were realistic that we would find it more difficult at this circuit," explained Mallya, who is Team Principal and Chairman of the outfit. "I was nevertheless a little disappointed that we struggled quite as much as we did and we didn't get into Q2, as expected.

Liuzzi made the end of the race

"That said, we do understand the reasons why - Singapore is an exceptionally high-downforce track and we have found this configuration difficult; Singapore is, however, the only such type of track in the second half of the season so we had to make a decision to focus on the events where we could be competitive rather than putting resources towards just one event."

Of the three most recent races, Japan's circuit is most similar to Spa, without the many long straights of Monza or narrow twists and turns of Marina Bay. "Suzuka is more low-downforce and should suit the car well," a confident Mallya continued. "Plus both drivers know and enjoy the circuit so their confidence will be high; Tonio is now fully up to speed and has completed perhaps the most physical event of the year in Singapore. Adrian, too, has driven the circuit extensively so I would say we are feeling positive."

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