The Brazilian Grand Prix proved to be another non-points scoring weekend for Force India with Adrian Sutil finishing the race in 12th and Vitantonio Liuzzi retiring on lap 49.

Vijay Mallya’s team have now slipped to seventh in the Constructors after Nico Hulkenburg finished the race in 8th place.

Its going to take a huge effort from everyone at the Silverstone-based team to regain sixth place ahead of this weekend’s Grand Prix at Abu Dhabi.

Poor

After Vitantonio’s superb result in Korea, the Force India camp will have been buzzing and the team will have been confident that they could score more points at Interlagos.

Tonio and Adrian have shown this season that they are decent drivers in wet conditions and the weather during qualifying should have suited both drivers.

The Free Practice sessions went well for the team and both drivers were posting competitive times within the mid-field. However qualifying did not go to plan and both drivers were near the back of grid.

Adrian prior to the Brazilian weekend was given a 5 place drop for causing a collision in the race at Korea so it was vital for the German to qualify as higher up the grid as he could.

The former Spyker driver could only manage the 18th quickest time in Q1 and to make matters worse he was demoted down to 23rd due to his five place drop. This was the last thing he and the team wanted. It was also the first time this season he had failed to get out of Q1.

Liuzzi did not do any better either. The Italian just about got into Q2 after posting the 17th quickest time in Q1 ahead of his team-mate. Tonio was the slowest of all the cars in Q2 which meant he qualified 17th.

If Force India thought there day could not get any worse, both Williams drivers Rubens Barrichello and Nico Hulkenburg made it into Q3. And to top it all Hulkenburg took his maiden pole in Formula One and at this stage Force India were for sure on the back foot.

Lucky

I’m sure everyone associated with Force India will have feared the worst since Hulkenburg was pole. Last year’s GP2 champion might have gone to score big points, but he could only come home in 8th.

The Force India faithful will have been pleased by the fact that Rubens Barrichello failed to score any points. Mind you Rubens has never had luck on his side at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Vitantonio failed to make an impression on the race itself until lap 49 when he went into the wall at Turn 2. The safety car was deployed and thankfully Liuzzi was OK.

As for Adrian, he drove a great race bearing in mind he started way down the field. Had he managed to qualify higher up the grid, he may well have scored some points.

Sutil did well to keep his compatriot Michael Schumacher behind him and it was another decent performance from Adrian despite not picking up any points.

Adrian pulled off a great move on Sebastian Buemi for 12th on lap 61. The German overtook Buemi on the outside at Turn 1 to take 12th place. That was more like the Adrian that we know.

It was frustrating that both Tonio and Adrian failed to take advantage of the weather conditions in qualifying but Sutil can take heart from the way he performed in the race.

I have already said this but Adrian might have scored some crucial points had he qualified higher. But it was not to be.

Hulkenburg’s 8th place finish meant that Williams leapfrogged Force India into sixth in the Constructors. However Force India only find themselves a single point behind their nearest rivals so all is not lost.

With the finale coming up at Abu Dhabi this weekend, it promises to be a cracking final weekend. Obviously the main focus will be on who will be crowned World Champion but Force India do still have something to play for.

I honestly don’t want this season to end but good things have to come to an end at some time and the 2010 season has been a terrific one.

Bring on Abu Dhabi and fingers crossed Force India can snatch sixth from Williams in the Constructors.

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