Expected better result in Montreal, says Mallya

Even though both the drivers finished inside the top 10 Force India chairman Vijay Mallya said he had expected the Canadian Grand Prix to yield more points for the Silverstone-based outfit.

With Vitantonio Liuzzi earning a career-best fifth place on the starting grid and Sutil four places behind him, Force India had all the reasons to hope for a grand finish on the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve which suited the car but Liuzzi finished a turbulent race ninth, just ahead of his teammate.

"Another double points finish for the team is a very positive result but given our outstanding qualifying performance, I think in my heart of hearts I would have hoped for more," Mallya said after the race.

Liuzzi lost his front wing after an opening lap tangle with Ferrari's Felipe Massa, while Sutil's brush with Robert Kubica left the German with a punctured tyre, necessitating an unscheduled pit stop.

"Both drivers got caught in unfortunate accidents and dropped back but they drove excellently to salvage three points, which, given the circumstances of the race, is very good," Mallya said.

"We also picked up significant damage on both cars in the incidents and to still show that level of performance is very encouraging," said Mallya, also the team principal.

"What we have learnt this weekend is that we've got a very strong car that's capable of fighting with the top four teams entirely on merit and we have two top line drivers who are functioning at their best. We're really looking forward to Valencia now," he added.

Liuzzi also felt the outcome could have been better. "The team deserved to get a good result after the hard work they have done this weekend and in the past weeks on the developments. We should ultimately have had more points than we got in the end, but it's always OK to get another few points on board, particularly after the last race when they seemed so far away," said the Italian.

"Unfortunately we lost a big part of the race as the door was closed on me in the first corner by Felipe. We lost the front wing and had to change the strategy then and there, but in the end we still got some points. "The team is pushing like hell and we want to confirm the progress we've made with more results. Today showed we're strongly in the top 10 and - more importantly - we will never give up," he added.

Echoing his view, Sutil said, "Of course I'm disappointed as I think we could have got some serious points here but I think I drove well, the car was good and we were fast the whole race."