Sahara Force India's chances of earning points brightened with Sergio Perez securing a seventh place start from the grid while Nico Hulkenberg is likely to start from 11th after finishing 13th in the Qualifying session for the Monaco Grand Prix, here today.
Perez improved on his timing as the sessions progressed and his timing of 1:16.808 in Q3 secured him seventh place.
"I always say qualifying in Monaco counts for 90% of your final result, so it was important to be strong. To be quick here you need confidence in the car and in yourself, and I had both today. To make it through to Q3 was already a great effort by the team, but to be starting P7 means we have already done a lot of the hard work for the race,"ez said.
"We went out early in Q3 because we thought the rain was coming and I had a mega lap. I was worried some of the others might improve their times, especially with the track evolution, but fortunately it was not the case. Tomorrow we have a good opportunity to score some important points. We know that anything can happen on a Sunday in Monaco, but I'm focussed on getting a clean start and a good first lap."
Hulkenberg, who brushed with barriers in Q1, also had a good day out there.
"My final lap was a very good one and I believe I could have been firmly in the top ten, but unfortunately I made a small mistake in the final corner, which cost me enough time to miss out on Q3. I am likely to be 11th on the grid, which means we will need to choose the right strategy to try and make up some positions.
"The brush with the wall in Q1 didn't do any damage but it cost a lot in terms of rhythm: you spend a long time trying to get the right confidence around Monaco and an incident like this sets you back a little," the German said.
