Date:01/04/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/04/01/stories/2008040160561700.htm

Sport - Racing : Motor

Force India confident of good show at Bahrain

New Delhi: Confident that it has addressed the reliability issues on Adrian Sutil’s car, a buoyant Force India heads for the Bahrain Grand Prix eyeing a double finish there.

The side has shed the back-marker’s tag with Giancarlo Fisichella impressing in all practice sessions and finishing 12th in the Malaysian Grand Prix, even though Sutil has not made his mark yet, retiring both in Melbourne and Sepang when gremlins crept into his car.

Team principal Colin Kolles, however, believes the issue has been taken care of and the side can look forward to a double finish in Bahrain on April 6.

“Our aims for this race have to be to get into second qualifying sessions and achieve a double finish,” Kolles said.

For Fisichella, the target would not change in Bahrain. “My aims will be the same as in Malaysia — I want to complete the full distance and improve the race pace if we can, although in Sepang our lap times were already pretty competitive.

“Hopefully, with the new improvements in Bahrain we will be able to investigate some more set up options and should be able to get rid of the understeer that plagued us in Sepang,” said the three-time winner.

Chairman and Managing Director Vijay Mallya echoed their optimism and asserted Force India was not on the grid just to make up the numbers.

“We have done the mathsand have improved by over two seconds from this time last year,” he said. — PTI