In a race where rain had been expected all week, the Malaysian GP yielded only hot and humid weather for the drivers. After starting in 17th, Giancarlo Fisichella managed to make his way up to 12th position come the fall of the chequered flag. Unfortunately, his team mate Adrian Sutil recorded his second DNF of the season from two races.
After a rubbish start, Fisi was down in 20th off the line, "At the start I had a lot of wheelspin and lost a lot of positions, I don't know why but we have to look into it", he said.
The Roman made his way up to 15th behind Rubens Barrichello by his first stop despite having problems, "on my first stint I was suffering a lot of understeer with graining on the soft tyres," he continued.
"In my stop I adjusted the front flap and went onto the harder tyres and stayed on them for both stints."
Even though he was a lap down on the leader, Fisichella was running in 13th towards the end of the race, before being gifted one more position by Barrichello who incurred a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pitlane.
"I am happy with the race pace later on though and it is promising for the rest of the season."
After making his way from 20th on the grid to 14th in five laps, Sutil developed a hydraulic problem and "had to switch the engine off and pull off the track. I am very disappointed with this start to the season, especially after I had to stop so soon into the race in Australia too", he said.
Vijay Mallya was impressed by the team's showing in Sepang, "We have bettered our fastest lap by over two seconds, more than any other team on the grid, but more importantly we showed that we are now able to race and are no longer the team bringing up the rear of the field.
"I feel this is highly promising for the rest of the season."
Please note that Customer engines from Ferrari are giving problems both to Force and STR. This highlights the fact that the customer engine supply is nowhere same spec as those which Ferrari are using for their team. That's a pity and a shame..
Fisi said that he was cautious at the start and hence couldn't gain positions,,,good approach though....i guess still drivers are making mistakes during turns and braking....i'll bet fisi would be much faster by the time the GP is in Europe.... Good luck for him and Sutil, who is gaining good confidence.
It must have been a good race for Giancarlo - I've seen some anti-Fisi people on other forums admit that he'd done well...
Seriously though, that was a good fightback from an unpromising position. Passing three people through either strategy or on-track moves is good going. Maybe next time the TV people will spend more time watching the Force Indias. It's a pity Adrian's hydraulics went wrong, because he looked really good when he was running too.
I agree, it would be nice if, when nothing all that interesting is happening on track, the race directors would be a little less bias of who they show driving around on their own!
I was wondering why don't they show a PIP picture of other drivers who are battling on the background.....they just focus on a few guys, while some interesting battle in the back remain unknown.. esp. the overtakes...
we're still far back to make some points. Fisi is getting the best out of this car for sure, just look at Sutil's pace and you'll see the true picture. The force team needs a true boost in aero to get this car into speed. This will happen in mid season though. Till then we need luck and bad lack to other teams. Unfortunately that's how things are, so evident and so painful.. better form next year..
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008:03:25:10:51:24 by gordons.
I don't know why there are any anti Fisi guys around. He's reportedly one of the friendliest guys around and has a very good rappport with Fernando Alonso, his former team mate at Renault. That alone speaks well for him. Usually the ones who play second fiddle wind up nursing a grudge - not so Fisi
We record all IP addresses on the Sportnetwork message boards which may be required by the authorities in case of defamatory or abusive comment.
We seek to monitor the Message Boards at regular intervals.
We do not associate Sportnetwork with any of the comments and do not take responsibility for any statements or opinions expressed on the Message Boards.
If you have any cause for concern over any material posted here please let us know as soon as possible by e-mailing
abuse@sportnetwork.net
