No points for Force India as Sutil crashes out

Budapest: Points eluded Force India at the Hungarian Grand Prix as Adrian Sutil retired after a freak collision in pit lane and Vitantonio Liuzzi finished 13th.

Sutil made a good start after starting 13th on the grid but a pit lane collision with Renault’s Robert Kubica in lap 16 ended his race. The German driver had come in for a tyre change along with a lot of drivers and the clash with Kubica proved fatal. Liuzzi, who started 16th on the grid, improved to 14th in lap 21 and gained one position when Lewis Hamilton of McLaren became the fifth driver to retire from the action-packed race in lap 25.The Italian maintained that position till the end thus, finishing outside the points bracket. This is third time in the championship and second time in a row that Force India returned empty handed from a Grand Prix. The last race also had ended without points for Force India at German Grand Prix at Hockenheim. Red Bull’s Mark Webber won the race after starting in the front row with teammate and Pole holder Sebastian Vettel, who finished third behind Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso. Webber has emerged as the new leader in the driver’s championships, uprooting Briton Hamilton.Sutil maintained his 10th position in the driver’s list and Force India held on to its sixth slot in the constructor’s championship. Sutil was extremely disappointed to be not able to finish the race due to the pit lane fiasco. "I was driving into my area when suddenly the Renault came out in front of me. There wasn’t anything I could do, they released him into my path and I just crashed into him and my car was damaged too badly to continue. "It was definitely unsafe from their part. A real shame it’s my first DNF since Australia and it’s even more disappointing as it for sure wasn’t our issue," he said after the race. Liuzzi said he did all he could to get a good result. "With the soft tyres we were fast but then lost a lot of time behind the Toro Rosso, who was actually struggling much more than me. Even so I just couldn’t find a way to overtake. "I tried hard until the last lap but there was just no chance. It’s been a difficult weekend, missing out on the points, but we confirmed we are competitive and always have the potential to score points," the Italian driver said. Vijay Mallya, chairman and team principal, did not hide his frustration on the accident which he said cost them possible points. "Adrian was very unfortunate to be taken out by the Renault, and it’s very frustrating from our side as we would have had a good chance of picking up some points without that incident," he said. PTI