Force India’s Adrian Sutil kept up his points scoring form with a ninth placed finish in Turkey. He has now finished in the Top 10 for three consecutive races and things are looking good for the German. His team-mate Vitantonio Liuzzi came home in 13th.

Both drivers failed to make it into Q3 and yet again there were questions raised about Liuzzi’s future at Force India. The Italian went out in Q1 for the second time this year and this is something that he has to address pretty quick.

As for Adrian it was not a disastrous qualifying session as he ended up in 11th just outside the Top 10. Sutil had been in a similar position in Monaco but he still managed to finish in the points and yet again in Turkey despite not getting into Q3 he picked up two points.

The weekend did not get off to the best of starts for Sutil when he hit the wall at Turn 8 in the First Free Practice session and then in third session he suffered from a small hydraulics problem.

Frustration

Adrian opted not to use the F-Duct system whereas his team-mate did and it was curtains for Liuzzi at the end of Q1 after posting the 18th quickest time. Tonio was 1.8 seconds slower than Sutil and this is surely a concern.

I have said this time and time again about Liuzzi needing to improve his qualifying. He has to up his form in qualifying if he is to stand a chance of scoring points on a regular basis.

I do not like seeing any drivers being axed at any point of a season and I still find talk about Liuzzi being replaced by Paul Di Resta ridiculous. Di Resta does have the talent don’t get me wrong but I just think we still haven’t seen the best of Tonio Liuzzi.

I’m sure Adrian will have been frustrated not to get into Q3 but like I said earlier qualifying 11th was not exactly catastrophic. Had Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi not edged him out for the final place in Q3, the German would have made it into the Top 10.

Pleasing

Within the first five laps, Adrian was 10th and Tonio climbed three places into 15th so it was a promising start for both drivers. After that however it was a non-eventful race for Liuzzi and he only finished 13th as Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel retired and Vitaly Petrov had a coming together with Fernando Alonso.

Vettel’s retirement on Lap 41 meant Sutil moved into 11th and ten laps later he got past Kobayashi into the final points scoring position. It got better for Adrian as Petrov collided with Alonso which meant Sutil was able to overtake the Russian into 9th.

The ex-Spyker driver will for sure be pleased to finish in the points for the third race in a row and personally I feel Sutil is getting better and better. He also seems to have become a more mature driver and Adrian can only improve on what he has achieved.

Tonio will be looking over his shoulder but now is not the time to replace him and don’t forget he has scored points in three of the seven races so far. We have yet to see the best of Liuzzi but I am now starting to worry about his qualifying form.

Will Liuzzi be the first driver to be axed this season or will he bounce back? Can Sutil continue to add to his points haul so far? Only time will tell.

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