20/04/2014
NEWS STORY
Sahara Force India continued its strong points-scoring form in China as Nico Hulkenberg finished in sixth place ahead of Sergio Perez in ninth. The ten points scored today leave the team with 54 points and third in the constructors' standings.
Nico Hulkenberg: "Finishing in sixth and bringing both cars home in the points again was a very positive result for the team. It was actually a pretty straightforward race for me after we got in front of Massa: I had to manage my tyres, my pace and avoid mistakes, and it only got tricky at the end when Bottas was getting a bit closer. We have beaten all other customer Mercedes cars, which are our main competition at the moment, but we have also seen some other teams up their game so we will need to keep pushing."
Sergio Perez: "To start from P16 and finish in ninth place is a good recovery after a difficult qualifying session yesterday. I made a good start and after that I just focussed on making the two-stop strategy work. I think everybody suffered with tyre graining and I picked up a few flat spots, but we still made it work. It was not easy to overtake today, even the cars on a different strategy, so I think ninth place was the maximum. It means I've scored points in three out of four races, but I was hoping for more today after the weekend we had in Bahrain. It's also clear that all the teams around us are finding pace so we have to keep working hard to be ready for Barcelona."
Robert Fernley, Deputy Team Principal: "Coming away from China with another ten points in our pocket and third place in the teams' standings is a very good effort. We never expected Shanghai to be our strongest track so I think we can feel pretty satisfied with our performance over the entire weekend. Nico's race was relatively straightforward and we judged the tyre strategy correctly as he held off Bottas in the final stint. Sergio staged a strong recovery drive to move up into the points, which was a good effort when you consider he has not felt completely comfortable with the car balance this weekend. To have 54 points after four races is an excellent effort and we can be pleased with the consistency we have shown over a variety of different circuits."
Check out our Sunday gallery, here.