From the Force India Formula One team garage I take a look at the team’s fortunes during what was an extremely challenging weekend at the 2012 Santander sponsored British Grand Prix. The weather played a major factor during practise, qualifying and race day itself. During both sessions of a rain soaked Friday practise the times posted by the various teams and drivers was never going to give us an indication as to their true speeds and where they are likely to qualify on Saturday, but what it did show us was just how difficult conditions were as many cars found themselves off track as a result of so much standing water on the circuit. At the end of the practise session the drivers in the top ten weren’t your usual names and teams. Shame this wasn’t replicated in final qualifying. It could have made for an even more interesting race. For Saturday qualifying the conditions got even worse as the session had to be red flagged and actually stopped for 90 minutes because of a number of cars crashing off due to extremely poor visibility and low levels of grip on the track. The conditions weren’t much better even after qualifying was restarted. However both the Force India drivers qualified well. Paul Di Resta qualified 11th but was promoted to tenth after his team mate Nico Hulkenberg was demoted 5 places from a very respectable 9th to 14th as a result of a penalty for having to change a gearbox. Unfortunately on race day Sunday Force India was not able to capitalise on the promise of Saturday qualifying. On the opening lap of the race Paul De Resta was forced off track and suffered a puncture as a result. And Nico Hulkenberg was unfortunately out of the points as he could only finish in 12th place. In two weeks we head to Germany for the Hockenheim Grand Prix and hope, weather permitting, that Force India can translate its raw speed into better results.
