After two disappointing Grands Prix on the trot, Force India got their season back on track with Adrian Sutil finishing the race in a superb 5th place. Vitantonio Liuzzi finished 10th after Jaime Alguersuari was given a penalty for cutting the final chicane whilst overtaking Tonio at the end of Lap 42.

A double point’s finish is exactly what the team needed and hopefully this is a sign of things to come for the team from now till the end of the season.

Tonio will have been delighted to have taken a point from Belgium. His race might have ended when Sebastian Vettel collided with him on Lap 26. But give credit where it is due, Liuzzi did a solid job and finishing in the Top 10 will do his confidence the world of good.

Relief

Force India for sure will have been relieved to have seen one of their drivers make it into Q3 for the first time since the Canadian Grand Prix.

Prior to Belgium, both Williams and Sauber had started to get the better of Force India in qualifying in recent Grand Prix’s. It was pivotal for Vijay Mallya’s team to have a better qualifying session.

It’s fair to say Q1 was pretty eventful with the rain coming down heavily. A lot had been said about Liuzzi’s qualifying form ahead of the race at Spa-Francorchamps.

However Tonio’s task of getting into Q2 was made easier when Vitaly Petrov had an early spin and both Sauber drivers ended up in the gravel.

Adrian managed to get into Q3 and qualified 8th much to the relief of the Force India team. Vitantonio did qualify 14th initially but was up to 12th after Mercedes duo Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher were given penalties.

Fantastico

Even though Force India did play down their chances of a win as well as a podium, I’m sure they would have fancied their chances of scoring some points.

Adrian had a fantastic race and he pulled off some decent overtaking manoeuvres. He pulled off a magnificent move on Michael Schumacher to move into 5th on Lap 25.

Sutil has now climbed above Schumi in the Drivers Championship and he has every reason to be pleased with his performance in Belgium.

The ex Spyker driver also did well to keep Rosberg behind him after the safety car was deployed for the second time. Overall a great race for Adrian.

Finally

Liuzzi was running ninth at one stage after Rubens Barrichello collided with Alonso and then Vettel went into Jenson Button on Lap 17 after losing the rear.

Tonio was on target to score some valuable points until he lost his front wing on Lap 26 after Vettel tried to get past the former Toro Rosso driver. Sebastian did end up getting a puncture to cap off a miserable day for him.

Unfortunately Liuzzi was unable to get past Jaime Alguersuari for the final points scoring position and it seemed that he was not going to take any points away from Belgium.

However things took a turn when the stewards after the race gave Alguersuari a 20 second penalty.

The Belgian stewards concluded that Alguersuari had broken the rules as he “left the track but rejoined gaining an advantage.”

This meant that Tonio was promoted up to the final points scoring position and that he scored his first point since the Canadian Grand Prix.

Personally I still feel Liuzzi does need to put in some strong performances from now till the end of the season. Finishing in the Top 10 will give him extra motivation to do well in his home race in Italy.

Monza should be another track that suits the Force India car. As we saw last year, Adrian put in a sterling performance and the team have every right to feel optimistic about their chances of scoring more points at the next Grand Prix.

Adrian will head to Italy in a buoyant mood after his fine result in Belgium. Tonio will also want to put in a performance in front of his home crowd and show the team that he deserves a seat for next season.

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