Sahara Force India enjoyed its only second double-points finish of the 2015 Formula One seasons as Nico Hulkenberg came up with his season-best sixth place finish while Sergio Perez ended the Austrian Grand Prix ninth, here today.
Before this race, Force India had a double-points finish at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix but has been struggling since then. A seventh place at Melbourne was Hulkenberg's best result before this season.
Hulkenberg had started fifth from the grid while Perez was way back in the 16th place.
The 10 points gathered from the race has helped the team move up to fifth place in the constructor's championship.
Hulkenberg, who came into the race after winning the historic Le Mans 24 Hours, said he was very pleased with sixth place.
"Going into the race we always knew it would be difficult to keep the Williams of Bottas behind me, so bringing the car home in sixth was probably the maximum we could achieve," the burly German said.
"I had some good wheel-to-wheel battles with him and we swapped places a few times, but it was hard to match their absolute pace. Overall it's been a great weekend: I found a nice rhythm and I have been very happy with the performance of the car. With Checo in the points as well, it's been an excellent weekend for us," he added.
Perez said it was a great result for the team to come away with so many points.
"We've moved up to fifth in the championship and that's an incredible effort by everyone in the team. I had a great start and first lap: the target was to get ahead of Maldonado as he was the first driver on the prime tyre and we managed to do that," the Mexican said.
Deputy Team Principal Robert Fernley said,"Nico drove a very clean and tidy race, and realistically it would have been difficult to have finished higher up the order. The same is true for Sergio who was on the opposite strategy to Nico, but made the progress he needed in the early laps on the soft tyres. Despite a slightly lengthy pit stop he was able to recover to ninth place and pick up a couple of points. It means that we remain very well placed ahead of our local race at Silverstone where we plan to introduce the next step for the VJM08.
