Shanghai:
Sahara Force India today had a disappointing outing at the Chinese Grand Prix here as Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg failed to register any points for the side for the second consecutive race.
Despite a strong start to the race, Sahara Force India missed out on points as Perez, starting seventh from the grid, crossed the line in the 11th position while Hulkenberg finished 15th after securing 10th spot in the qualifying race yesterday.
Meanwhile, keeping all the drama behind him, Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg secured his sixth successive Formula One victory, overcoming challenges from Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull’s Daniil Kvyat.
After leading early on before suffering a puncture, Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo finished fourth, followed by the Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen and Williams’ Felipe Massa.
After Hulkenberg’s seventh place finish at the season opener at Australian Grand Prix, the last two races have been disappointment for Sahara Force India.
Both Perez and Hulkenberg expressed disappointment after today’s outing.
“Today things didn’t go our way and the timing of the safety car didn’t help me. The start of the race was really good and things looked very promising. I was up in third place when the safety car came out and we had no option but to pit, which dropped me back into the pack,” Perez said.
“I had to fight hard because the cars around me were on different tyres and there were some quick cars recovering as well. All of this took a lot of the life from my tyres. The points finish slipped away in the final part of the race.”
Hulkenberg added: “It was a frustrating race in the end, even though the start and the first few laps were great. As the lights went out, I rocketed from P13 up to fifth place, picking up one place after the other. The safety car threw all this good work out the window. The dirty air affected us, we had some faster cars coming through and this destroyed my tyres.”
Sahara Force India Chief Operating Officer, Otmar Szafnauer also expressed disappointment after returning empty-handed for the second consecutive race.
“It’s disappointing to come away from today’s race empty-handed, especially when you consider that we were so well placed in the early laps up in third and fourth places.
The safety car was unfortunate from our perspective as it cost us our track position and left us fighting through traffic to try and recover,” Szafnauer said.
