By IANS,
Silverstone (England) : Heavy rain dashed Force India’s hopes of finishing the British Grand Prix and its both drivers –Adrian Sutil and Giancarlo Fisichella — failed to complete the race.
McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton won the race, leaving behind BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld and the Honda of Brazilian Rubens Barrichello. Hamilton stormed back to the top of the Formula One standings with this win.
The wet track conditions and standing water contributed to a chaotic race, with just 13 finishers and only three cars finishing on the lead lap. The same conditions also conspired to bring the Force India drivers to a disappointing double retirement.
Sutil and Fischella both raced competitively in the first half of the race, but spins into the gravel trap on laps 11 and 27 respectively put an end to their challenge.
“At the time of my spin, the track was starting to dry and it was tricky to tell where the wet patches were. I just went on one of these puddles. It was a shame as considering how the race turned out, we could have had a chance of moving up the order some more,” said a frustrated Sutil.
Fisichella said the wet conditions made the gripping difficult and caused his car to spin.
“I just lost control going through the complex because there was a lot of graining on the tyres as a result of the heavy fuel load we were carrying to be as flexible as possible with the weather. Even two laps earlier, the track was starting to dry out and there was some more graining. The grip level was absolutely zero and I spun.”
Force India co-owner Vijay Mallya too blamed it on the difficult conditions.
“It is also astonishing that a car that qualified just two tenths away from us has finished on the podium. If we had finished, then who knows what would have been possible? The conditions were extremely difficult and, as we saw, most drivers experienced some sort of problem. We should not dwell on this too much though, but rather move on and look forward to the German Grand Prix.”