Sutil finishes 9th, Resta 14th at European GP

Valencia: Adrian Sutil matched his second best performance of the season by finishing ninth in the European Grand Prix, earning two points for Force India, while Paul di Resta ended up outside the points bracket with 14th position on Sunday.

Sutil, who started 10th on the grid, had managed the same position in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix as well. His best performance of the season has been in Monaco GP last month. Resta, who started in P12, kept himself in points contention till lap number 47 in the 57-lap race but dropped back after the third and final pit stop. Resta has not scored now for the sixth consecutive race. Red Bull`s Sebastian Vettel won the race from poleposition and was followed by Ferrari`s Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber, who started third on the grid. India`s Narain Karthikeyan, who drives for Hispania, was last in the 24th position after starting in the same position on the grid. Both Sutil and di Resta gained a place each in the opening lap itself by overtaking the two Renault drivers to make a strong start. Sutil overtook Nick Heidfield and Resta left behind Vitali Petrov. Sutil and Heidfield, infact, had a very tight contest between them throughout the race. Sometimes Heidfield was sandwiched between the two Force India cars with Sutil in the ninth place and Resta on 11th. After the first pit stop in lap 13, Sutil rejoined the race in 14th position but he soon positioned himself to the eighth.Resta sneaked into the top-10 in the latter part of the race but after the third pit stop he dropped back to 14th. Sutil went to the pit lane before Resta but raced brilliantly to not only make his way back into the top-10 but also move up a place to ninth just behind Jaime Alguersuari of Toro Rosso.Sutil put pressure on Alguersuari with fresh set of tyres but the Toro Rosso driver held on to his position, successfully implementing the two pit-stop strategy. PTI