Zoom So close yet so far

The Force India Formula One Team suffered a frustrating end to its debut season in today's Brazilian Grand Prix. Points looked tantalisingly close for Giancarlo Fisichella, who had made an inspired early call to change to dry tyres on lap two following the heavy rain on the grid.

The Italian was catapulted up to third position when the rest of the field pitted some five laps later, and he held a potential points-scoring finish until his first pit stop on lap 38.

An undetected clutch problem however led to two stalls in the pit and Fisichella dropped from the sharp end of the field to the rear. Undeterred, he continued to push until the end to finish a disappointing 18th.

Adrian Sutil put in a steady performance in the chaotic rain-soaked race, making no mistakes in the changing conditions. The German finished his second season of F1 in 16th position at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Adrian Sutil:
"I think it was a good finish for this season - at least we could see the chequered flag. We had two cars behind us too, which was a good effort. It was quite difficult at the beginning to get the strategy right with the tyre choice. We started on the intermediates and then went back to drys and it worked out quite well for us. On the first set we had a lot of graining but the second was quite alright. We gambled at the end with the extreme wets as it was very dark and looked like it would rain very heavily. The rain didn't come soon enough though and we struggled, but overall we did the maximum we could."

Giancarlo Fisichella:
"It was an exciting race, with so many things happening. It was a good decision to go to the dry tyres after the Safety Car came out and then it was looking very good. This part of the race was fantastic, even though it was very difficult through the first part of the circuit. Turns one and two were particularly bad, almost undriveable, but the rest of the circuit wasn't too bad as there was a dry line. The lap time was getting much better, then for a while I was in the first three and was keeping a good pace."

"Unfortunately in the first pit stop I had a problem with the clutch and dropped right back. In both stops there was no clutch and I lost a lot. In the rain at the end we tried to gamble with the extreme tyres as there was nothing to lose. Despite the result though it was an incredible start to the race and we can be pleased with the performance."