Sutil heaps pressure on Force India team-mate
After finishing 5th in Malaysia, Adrian Sutil has gone on to dominate his team-mate Vitantonio Liuzzi in all departments and that continued in Spain where the German finished 7th whereas Liuzzi finished in a lowly 15th place.
Adrian picked up six well deserved points and the team are currently sixth in the Constructors with 24 points comfortably ahead of Toro Rosso and Williams.
Tonio’s weekend did not get off to the best of starts as he was outpaced in the First Free Practice by Force India’s reserve driver Paul Di Resta. Liuzzi is definitely on the back foot and if he continues to struggle then Di Resta may well be drafted in his place. It is too early to be getting rid of drivers but if the Italian does not start to deliver then he may well find himself replaced by the young Scotsman.
Out-performing
For the first time this season, Sutil failed to get into Q3 and ended up qualifying 11th. Vitantonio to be quite frank with you was very lucky to get into Q2. He only managed the 17th quickest time in Q1 and he could have so easily have been knocked out in the first qualifying round for the second consecutive Grand Prix weekend.
The Italian stayed 17th in Q2 and similarly to the Chinese Grand Prix it was always going to be difficult for him to finish in the points. Apart from gaining three places on the opening lap, the former Red Bull driver never got going and he never looked as if he was going to threaten the point’s scorers. So overall it was a disappointing weekend for Liuzzi and one he needs to recover from very quickly.
The same cannot be said for Sutil. Adrian was eighth at the end of the first lap and from there he put in an assured performance to finish seventh following Lewis Hamilton’s incident two laps from the end.
Since Malaysia, the ex-Spyker driver has upped his game and is continuing to out-perform his team-mate which he will be delighted with. Sutil will now believe that he is the No.1 driver at the team.
Force India’s main midfield rivals will probably be Renault and the fact that Sutil finished ahead of Robert Kubica in Spain will be a boost for Vijay Mallya’s team.
Principality of Monaco
In my preview of the Spanish Grand Prix, I said that the team will want to have some momentum heading to Monaco. Out of the two drivers, Adrian will be heading to Monaco on the front foot and will be confident of securing another positive result.
Vitantonio is now a man under pressure and he quickly needs to turn his recent poor form round. His season has faltered after scoring in the first two Grands Prix of the 2010 season which I’m sure he will be concerned with.
The Monaco Grand Prix should be an intriguing one and with overtaking difficult it is vital for the front runners as well as the midfield teams to qualify higher up the grid for them to stand a chance of finishing in the points.
Whenever I have seen Sutil at Monaco he always seems to do well so I’m hoping he can finish in the points. At least Kimi Raikkonen won’t be able to ruin his race.




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