At first glance a 10th place finish might not seem spectacular, but in reality Adrian Sutil’s result in Valencia was extremely impressive, and demonstrated once more than Force India is now very much in the hunt for points.
Just one car in front retired – that of Sebastian Vettel – and Adrian finished right behind Mark Webber, who won the German GP just a few weeks ago.
What’s more at the flag he was only 13s behind World Championship leader Jenson Button after a race that was not affected by safety cars or any other interruptions.
Despite the summer factory shut down the team had made very efficient use of the limited time available since Hungary. A major update package for Valencia proved to be so effective that Adrian was sixth fastest on Friday morning and again in the afternoon.
He was fastest when Saturday morning’s session. While the top teams tend to run heavier fuel loads in that session, it was clear that the update was working well.
“It’s a very simple track, it just goes straight on, so you don’t need a lot of downforce,” he says. “But I think we gained about half a second, and it should be even more in Spa.”
Adrian had high hopes of making it into Q3, but in the end he missed out by a slender margin, and ended the session 12th.
Adrian was hoping to gain some ground at the start. In fact all the chaos happened right behind him (and helped team mate Giancarlo Fisichella), and he finished the lap still in 12th place.
“It was all blocked let’s say, and it was very hard to pass anybody. I was on the outside so I tried to go to the inside, because the outside isn’t very good for the second corner. I just kept my position, nothing really happened.”
For the first part of the race he chased Nick Heidfeld’s BMW. At one point he got alongside, but his countryman held his line into the next corner, and forced Adrian wide.
“Once I nearly made it on the outside, because the next turn was a lefthander so it would have been good for me. I was running out of space a little bit!”
In the end he made it past on strategy at the second pit stops, and with Vettel retiring early, he moved up to 10th place. Aside from Heidfeld, Adrian also beat both Toyotas, a Renault and a Ferrari. His fastest lap was less than 0.1s slower than Webber’s, and less than 0.3s off that of Heikki Kovalainen, who finished fourth.
“I think it was a strong race, and I’m really happy with it. I have done a few other races which were similar and maybe even had a better position in the end. But here almost nobody retired. And it was a dry race, and normally we’re strong in the wet races.
“When I scored my point in Fuji it was a very good race because it was so difficult to stay on the circuit. But it’s important to have some good races in the dry, so I’m quite pleased with it. It was a good race and a good weekend. Finishing in the top 10 was a goal for us, and we achieved it, so I’m happy.”
Attention now turns to Spa, one of Adrian’s favourite tracks and a place where he has shown well with much less competitive cars than he currently has. He’s looking forward to it.
“Spa I think is our circuit. We were quite good there last year, and this year must be much, much better. I’ll be happy with a dry weekend. The circuit is amazing in the dry, and our car is now good in the dry. I want to see how our update works there!”
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