Force India came agonisingly close to scoring its maiden Formula One points before settling for a double finish -- best result since its 2008 debut -- with Adrian Sutil coming 10th and Giancarlo Fisichella 12th in the rolle-rcoaster Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne on Sunday.Running fourth when the first safety car was deployed, Fisichella looked set to score Force India' first F1 points in the season opener before a pit-stop blunder cooked his goose.
The Italian missed the stop mark and Force India crew had to manually push him back to the pit box and the precious time lost saw him rejoin the race in 14th position.
The veteran driver, however, did well to finish the race 12th.
"I'm very disappointed with the mistake I made in the pit stop. I was just confused with last year as we were always in the last slot in the pit lane, so I just overshot and had to be pulled back into the pits. I'm really sad about this as I think we could have got a good result," a dejected Fisichella later said.
Sutil, meanwhile, found himself tangled in the first lap, losing part of his front wing and limping into the pit.
Having dropped to the rear of the field, the German nevertheless drove a measured, consistent race to claim his best result in over a year.
"I had a good start but in the first corner I think (Mark) Webber slowed down and there was nowhere I could go. I damaged my front wing and had to get the car back to the pits.”
"After the first safety car everything was fine - we had a good strategy with a short stint on the soft tyres in the middle. On the restart I could get past a few cars and then on the hard tyre it went really well. I could finish in 10th position - I think we can be happy with this," said Sutil.
Chairman and team principal Vijay Mallya had little to complain after the double finish and he said it was a good show considering the car was designed and built in 120 days and with only eight days of testing.