Force India laments missed chance in the British Grand Prix

Paul di Resta was eliminated when first-lap contact with Romain Grosjean's Lotus left him with a damaging puncture, while team-mate Nico Hulkenberg dropped from ninth to 12th with a late mistake at Copse while battling with Bruno Senna's Williams.

Hulkenberg, whose set-up had been geared towards wet conditions, said he had been doing his utmost to fend off Senna and McLaren's Jenson Button on fading tyres.

"It's frustrating to lose points so close to the finish but my tyres were running out of performance and the car was not easy to drive in the final stint," he said.

Di Resta said he did not realise there had been contact before he suddenly went off the road coming out of the Arena section.

"I just turned into Turn 4 and there was no pressure in the right rear tyre so it was clearly punctured and coming off the rim," he said. "All I could do was bring the car back to the pits, but there was quite a lot of damage to the floor.

"I took some fresh tyres and went back out, but I was missing a lot of downforce and I went off the track at Becketts. So the team made the call to retire the car.

"I'm very disappointed because we took a gamble yesterday by running a dry set-up and the conditions today would have been ideal for us."

Team boss Vijay Mallya said the race had been a frustrating experience.

"We should have scored points today so we leave our local race feeling disappointed," he said.