Round nine of the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship sees a return to European soil with the ubiquitously named European Grand Prix. The host city for the event will be the vibrant city of Valencia, which has welcomed the Grand Prix for the past two years. The Valencia Urban track will be the third street circuit on the calendar so far this year after Monaco and Canada and, after picking up double points finishes in both, the Force India F1 Team is looking forward to another similar performance on the 5.419km course round the Juan Carlos I Marina.

Adrian and Tonio were unlucky in Canada not to have scored more points. Do you think you can make amends for this in Valencia?
Dr Vijay Mallya, chairman and team principal: Like any event, there were positives and negatives. Two cars back in Q3 and two cars in the points is not something to be sniffed at and earlier in the season we would have been delighted with this. Yet, as we said at the time, given the starting positions and our promising speed over the weekend we would have expected more. Our race pace was however very strong and, even with both drivers racing damaged cars as a result of their separate accidents, we could easily overtake and race with the front of the field. I think Valencia should suit us equally well and with both drivers performing at near optimum levels, and a bit of luck, I think we can finish the job there.

Valencia is a return to Europe and another street circuit. What are your expectations for this one?
VM: Valencia was really where our performance started to show through last year so we are all looking forward to going back there. Our technical team and the drivers are confident we'll go well there as it's medium to low downforce and the performance we showed in Canada demonstrated that we have a strong package on this type of configuration. Additionally we have some new upgrades scheduled for introduction that should keep us abreast of the other teams. It's a development race now and rather than introduce major new upgrades we're doing it as and when ready to keep the momentum high.

Are you pleased with the way Adrian and Tonio are working together this year?
VM: Absolutely. When you see them together there is a harmonious working relationship. They constantly talk about the races, sit in the same debriefs, eat meals together at the circuit and do get on together well, and I think it's one of the many reasons we are performing so well this year. While clearly wanting to be as fast as they can, they believe that the team comes first and by helping the overall level of performance they can, themselves, achieve their own goals. For me it's one of the strongest driver line-ups in the field as they work so well together.

How would you review the Canadian Grand Prix?
Adrian Sutil: It was a tough race for us, but quite interesting - there were lots of battles and managing the tyres was a particular key point in doing well. At the start of the race I was racing very hard and was in the top six until I got the puncture when racing with Kubica. It was unlucky as I had to do a whole lap with the tyre basically flat and dropped back. Still, when I got back to speed I could enjoy some good racing, with a lot of fights and found it quite easy to overtake, which shows we're still very competitive. I enjoyed it and although just one point doesn't seem to represent how well we did and our overall level of competitiveness, we can still be relatively pleased with the weekend's performance.

What are your thoughts on the Valencia Urban Track?
AS: Valencia is not my favourite circuit as there's not so much of a challenge for the driver. Even though it's classed as a street circuit, it doesn't really feel like it as there's no challenging corners: it's just braking into hairpins, then flat out. You just don't get the thrill you have on a standard street circuit like Monaco or Singapore. The last complex is a little bit more challenging as there's a left-right chicane taken at high speed followed by another right hander. Then it's just flat out with a few corners into the last turn, which is actually one of the trickiest as we're braking while turning in so it's easy to overshoot the corner and lose it in the exit. Grip levels can be quite low, particularly off line, so you have to judge any overtaking manoeuvre pretty carefully. That said, the track is also very wide with a lot of run off areas so you're not worried about touching a barrier. Over one lap it's not a classic but the racing there can be quite tight and with the cars being so close this year it could produce a good race.

The VJM03 has performed well on street tracks this year and racing on this type of course is a speciality for you - are you hopeful of achieving a good result in Valencia?
AS: Valencia needs a medium to low downforce aero configuration and we've shown that we can perform well on this type of track. We were strong in Canada and I believe we can be quite good in Valencia as well. We've also got some new parts coming for this race that should further improve our performance, including a new front wing and some smaller bodywork changes, plus a few minor suspension component developments. I think it looks promising. We've not had the best luck in Valencia in the past but I hope that the good basic foundations of the car, plus the solid developments we've had over the past races and leading into this one will put us in good shape to get some more points on the board and close the gap to Renault.