Force India hope for a better qualifying session than free practice
Force India hope for a better qualifying session than free practiceu00a0
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If Giancarlo Fisichella's comments after Friday's first free practice are any indication, then Force India could well have a tough time going into today's qualification round ahead of Sunday's Shanghai Grand Prix.
Force India's senior driver finished an unimpressive 17th (best of 1:38:460 seconds from 19 laps) and 20th (1:37:750 off 31 laps), respectively, in yesterday's practice sessions, and the seasoned Italian was certainly not too pleased about it.
"I'm not particularly happy with how today went. I'm struggling with the car balance at the moment," said the speedster who comes second in experience to only Brazilian Brawn GP driver Rubens Barrichello when it comes to Formula One racing.
"The car balance is not consistent yet and I don't feel entirely comfortable," added the 37-year-old but not without a hint of optimism nevertheless.
"At the moment, we don't have a problem with the tyres. In these temperatures we are pretty much okay. We have some ideas of what we can do so I think we will improve tomorrow."
Meanwhile, German Adrian Sutil, 10 years younger than Fisichella, finished a tad better and quicker than his teammate. Sutil emerged 14th (1:38:319 off 18 laps) and 11th (1:36.829 off 30 laps) in the two sessions.
Force India's chief race engineer Dominic Harlow, however, said the team was pretty happy with the results, having tested out a number of combinations.
Trial and error"This weekend is going to be all about how we use the dry tyres and/or programme. We tried a lot of different things in a structured test and the VJM02 has been reliable and responsive to changes so far. The track was quite green and hence offered low grip but it will evolve over the next two days and that is something we have to account for us as we approach qualifying and the race. It will be another tight qualifying session," he promised.
Given the favourably hot weather in China's commercial capital during the afternoon, if either Sutil or Fisichella are able to get off the blocks quickly today, Force India might just be well placed on the grid to go for their first points in Formula One on Sunday.
shanghai Grand Prix qualifying, Live on Star Sports, 11:20, Saturday
Raceday, Live on Star
Sports, 11:30, Sunday
