Force India Finishes Fourth in Japanese Grand Prix Qualifier

After a disheartening outing in Singapore, Force India was back in business at the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka with Adrian Sutil finishing fourth in the qualifiers on Saturday, taking the tricoloured team an inch closer to a dream cherished by a growing number of F1 fans in India.

For the record, Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel takes pole position at Suzuka tomorrow.

Toyota’s Jamo Trulli drove in Second followed by Lewis Hamilton of McLaren-Mercedes.

Sutil’s Force India team mate Vitantonio Liuzzi finished 19th.
Indian liquor baron Vijay Mallya bought the former Spyker team in October 2007 and renamed it ‘Force India’.

After failing to score through the 2008 season, Force India went through a management metamorphosis with Mallya taking over as team principal.

Since then, there has been no looking back for Force India, now driven by a technical tie-up with McLaren.

It all started to come together for Force India as Giancarlo Fisichella provided the first pole, points and podium in Belgium, days before he moved to Ferrari as a replacement for injured Felipe Massa.

Assuming the role of the senior driver Sutil drove Force India to the fourth position at the Italian Grand Prix to keep it among points, Liuzzi in his first outing for the team retired after 22 laps at the Monza.

Since Force India tryst with destiny started in Belgium, Singapore came as a rude shock for the team with Sutil being pushed out of the race with accident damage, Liuzzi finished 14th.

With Sutil consistently performing during the practice sessions through Friday and today, Force India are almost certain to be back in the thick of things on Sunday.