Fab Fisi Flies to Pole

They say that if is F1 backwards, well yesterday's qualifying session for the Belgian Grands Prix certainly turned the world of Formula One on it's head and for once, the weather had absolutely nothing to do with it.

The day started well for Force India, the morning practice session ended with Adrian Sutil 3rd, just miliseconds off the top spot claimed by Nick Heidfeld's BMW.  Giancarlo had reported an issue in the session when aparently he hit a rabbit on the track (unseen by the camera's that dot the circuit).  He returned to the garage where the team fitted the spare nosecone that was used in last weeks race at Valencia.  There was clearly a bit of damage to the new nose that needed to be repaired before being used in qualifying.  As a result, Giancarlo finished morning practice further down the timing sheets in 8th but still well in the top 10.

The weather at the circuit looked good.  Perhaps a bit overcast reducing temperatures on track somewhat, certain teams clearly struggled with their tyres during the day.

Qualification one ended with Adrian in 4th position, a season best for him and extremely pleasing for the squad.  Giancarlo however could only manage to get his VJM02 round in 1:45.102 after 11 laps putting him at a seasons best of fastest...

Qualification two ended with Adrian in 11th position, again a season best for him and the team but not quite enough to get him into qualification three.  It would appear that the young German found himself in traffic towards the end of the session.  Giancarlo again, tried his best love him but could only get the car to 4th fastest and therefore the team for the first time ever into the final round of qualifying.  A guaranteed top 10 start position. Unbelieveable!

But that wouldn't appear to have been enough for the Italian (who may have been out to try and impress Ferrari.  More later on that one no doubt...)  Oh no, Giancarlo wasn't going to let 10th place be the best.  He was only out to stick it on Pole.

Four laps he did.  Four! With his slowest lap of the day and clearly in a car with fuel enough for the first good stint of the race, Giancarlo Fisichella  who last put a car at the front of the grid in 2006, stuck the VJM02 into that most hallowed of grid slots.  I nearly fell off my chair.  

That makes no sense at all.  From the very back of the grid to the very front seemingly in one fell swoop.  That's just magic.  They've progressed as a team most definately but some times you have to wonder.  How is that possible?  Low fuel?  Underweight car?  The media would have a field day speculating how that car got to be where it is.  Was it Giancarlo's desire to impress someone or was it just natural that a team like Force India who are still staffed with a number of engineers and people who were there in 1998 know this track like the back of their hands and just found the perfect setup for the conditions and the demands of this circuit?

"This is an unbelievable day for the team." said Adrian. "Congratulations to Giancarlo: it was an amazing result for him and such a good boost for the team. We've worked hard so the guys really deserve it. For me, it was quite a good session but I'm still a little bit disappointed as I couldn't use the soft tyre set effectively. The hard set was much better on my car - we don't know why but we will look into it for sure. Normally we should have been Q3 - as Giancarlo showed - but from 11th I still think points are possible. We are quite good on the long run pace, the car feels good and it was from this point of view I am quite happy."

"This is one of my favourite circuits, I did well in the past and I was sure we would be competitive again this year." Giancarlo explained.  "I didn't expect to be on pole though! It feels just great, like a dream. I am so happy for myself, for the team, for the mechanics, the engineers, who have done a fantastic job. They did a great step forward for Valencia for the last race considering our budget and our resources. This morning we had a small accident when I hit a rabbit, but my engineer said it would be lucky and it was ! What a result. I am now not only looking for points, but for more. We've got this far we need to finish the job!"

"Simply an incredible result today and full credit to Giancarlo on a series of fantastic laps." Commented Chief Race engineer Dominic Harlow.  "We started today a little unsure of our performance, and knew we had to work on the understeer that was in the car yesterday. The engineers worked on it, tried a few things in FP3 and found the right direction. From there both drivers were much happier. For Adrian the two tyres seemed closer in performance in qualifying, and somehow he just missed out on Q3, Giancarlo concentrated on the soft tyre in Q2 and I think the track improvement came in that direction. I want to say thanks to the tunnel, the factory and to the team and hope that tomorrow we convert this qualifying result to solid points."

Dr Vijay Mallya, chairman and managing director of Force India gushed "What an unbelievable result we have had here. I am so proud of Giancarlo, the team in the garage and the factory and also for the entire Indian nation. There is nothing more to say: we've done both ourselves and the country proud."

The team did everything right yesterday and now have the oportunity to turn their hard work into genuine and immensly valuable points.  The first corner will be tricky as the KERS cars will no doubt be hot on their heels but for an experienced head, we're expecting big things today. 

Watch Fisi's flying lap here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIHJSo2M-3c&eurl=http://video.google.com/videosearch%3Fhl%3Den%26source%3Dhp%26q%3Dforce%2520india%26um%3D1%26ie%3DUTF-8%26sa%3DN%26tab%3Dwv&feature=player_embedded