Force India: No points after Di Resta runs fifth

2011 Canadian GP team review

Posted on

| Written by

Force India tested their latest aerodynamic upgrade at Kemble airfield before the race.

Adrian SutilPaul di Resta
Qualifying position1411
Qualifying time comparison (Q2)1’15.287 (+0.535)1’14.752
Race position18
Laps49/7067/70
Pit stops43

Force India drivers’ lap times throughout the race (in seconds):

https://www.racefans.net/charts/2011drivercolours.csv

12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031323334353637383940414243444546474849505152535455565758596061626364656667686970
Adrian Sutil153.179124.975124.547120.994101.378101.44999.746106.505113.635131.002125.983119.11398.29698.73998.964113.53397.84896.872109.956113.097109.055107.45112.065137.981143.238127.612122.88121.255121.252120.806123.36121.377132.95193.93696.131106.22113.866125.299121.20294.05192.37393.15191.94897.45791.73990.17190.912113.818
Paul di Resta149.311126.622124.19121.89199.953103.91698.605105.874113.882130.687125.721120.0297.90796.12497.24596.41497.25298.152107.674110.824107.799107.438130.381137.979142.154126.4123.012122.306123.208121.217121.416122.459120.439109.2993.711105.225116.706125.038123.60692.90791.313115.95792.29590.7991.48591.56590.17488.46895.99888.23789.166102.352108.38582.82992.177102.558103.70293.49189.46390.78383.95282.08182.49181.42380.09179.395

Adrian Sutil

Made a mistake in qualifying leaving him behind Di Resta on the grid for the sixth time this year: “I made a mistake in the hairpin on my last lap. I hit a bump under braking which caused the rear tyres to lock and I slid wide”.

Sutil was among the drivers who switched to intermediates before the race suspension. He didn’t switch back to them before the race was red-flagged ad picked up places from drivers who did, as he was able to put wet tyres on before the race resumed.

He had two run-ins with Nico Rosberg during the race. The stewards did not penalise him for clipping the Mercedes during the safety car period, but he received a drive-through penalty when for passing the Mercedes under the safety car.

He fell to 14th and decided on a gamble to make up places but it didn’t pay off: “After the drive-through penalty, I decided it was worth the risk of switching to dry tyres, but it was maybe a few laps too early.

“I had quite a big snap on my out lap and touched the wall, which broke the left rear suspension”.

Adrian Sutil 2011 form guide

Paul di Resta, Force India, Montreal, 2011

Paul di Resta

On his first visit to the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Di Resta qualified 11th, half a second clear of Sutil.

Running eighth by lap six, he then went straight on at turn eight, losing three places. But while others gambled on intermediates – and lost out – Di Resta ascended to sixth, where he was when the race resumed after the suspension.

With Mark Webber and Michael Schumacher battling behind him, Di Resta was free to attack Nick Heidfeld for fourth.

But he hit the Renault at the chicane, breaking his front wing and being handed a drive-through penalty.

He recovered to 11th by passing Sebastien Buemi and was trying to pass Rubens Barrichello for the final point when he hit the wall and retired.

Paul di Resta 2011 form guide

Nico Hulkenberg

Drove Adrian Sutil’s car in first practice.

2011 Canadian Grand Prix

    Browse all 2011 Canadian Grand Prix articles

    Image © Force India F1 Team

    Author information

    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

    Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

    15 comments on “Force India: No points after Di Resta runs fifth”

    1. Looks like FI still has not really recovered from the loss of Key and the team that went to Lotus last year. And I guess Hulk is slowly getting warmed up to get in the car for Sutil, possibly already in the second half of the season.

    2. dyslexicbunny
      13th June 2011, 16:12

      Tough break for both of them.

    3. Do Force India have magnets in their cars that pull them towards other cars? They lost a lot of points due to crashes in the last 2 races.

    4. It’s the second time in a row Di Resta crahses into someone and is handed a penalty – sad because he was running high. He has serious potential and just these two errors have stopped him from translating it into results.

      1. ScottishNotBritish
        14th June 2011, 8:55

        Yeah, Sunday was a sad day for Di Resta. He was driving supremely, making up a lot of passes which weren’t caught on camera. 4th or 5th was clearly on for him before the Heidfeld incident.

        To be honest I don’t think we can judge the incident with Heidfeld from the camera angles shown on television. Di Resta has said that he was alongside and almost past Heidfeld on the straight (which we didn’t see) but that Heidfeld broke later and turned in early on him. Perhaps Heidfeld was never going to make the chicane?

        Either way to give Di Resta a penalty was ridiculous and the stewards need to stop handing out these penalties.

        1. Yeah, over zealous stewarding seems to be creeping back in again. Wonder if it’s Charlie Whiting laying down the law, Driver/Stewards trying to get too involved or it’s being instigated by complaints from the teams. Either way it’s got to stop or we going to get back to boring drivers unwilling to take chances.

    5. I think Di Resta has the potential to get into a front of the grid team, but I think at the moment he’s under preforming slightly due to a few rookie errors and being a little over eager to overtake.

    6. the penalty for di Resta was ridiculous, he got no advantage from that… a slight error in judgement which paid price by breaking his wing was enough of a punishment.

      In that race too many incidents were under investigation. god knows what were they thinking.

      1. I think it’s a very good thing the stewards A) investigate incidents and B) let the viewers know about it.

      2. ScottishNotBritish
        14th June 2011, 9:02

        100% agreed, Dev. I was absolutely furious when they announced Di Resta was to serve a drive-through. There is no consistency whatsoever. There were ‘avoidable collisions’ all over the place on Sunday yet it is only Paul who is punished.

        It seems to me the stewards are much happier ruining a mid-field rookie’s race than they are any of the front runners, when handing out these penalties.

    7. When you think about it, di Resta could have got a podium!

      1. Not really.

    8. Looked like Paul forgot about the brakes when he went into the back of Heidfeld, clumsy! I want back some of that good stuff he showed initially.

      1. you got it wrong, Paul & Nick were side by side… Paul braked to make the chicane… Nick braked later & was going to miss the chicane cause of that… obviously nick got ahead of Paul as he missed the braking point. Now nick turned into Paul as he attempted to cut the chicane… which resulted in Paul losing his wing. Now how is that Paul’s fault.

        stewards were plain stupid!!

    9. Sad day for Paul. He has such moments of brilliance, if only he could learn to keep his nose clean! I have high hopes for him that as he gets older and more experienced, he’ll be a force to be reckoned with.

    Comments are closed.