Mallya delighted with Force India's race

"Overall it's been a strong performance for us all weekend and probably our most competitive race in two seasons," said Mallya after Adrian Sutil finished in 10th position, two places ahead of team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella.

"The upgrades we introduced this race have clearly given us a big step forward and we're now really mixing it in the midfield positions," added the Indian.

Fisichella, who made his way through the field from 16th position, believes Force India could be fighting for points regularly if the team manages to take another stop forward.

"We made a few positions and now seem to be ahead of Toyota and some other cars. We need another step like we made this weekend and we can easily score points," he said.

Sutil added: "Today was a good performance with no mistakes, good lap times and we showed a clear step forward. I think tenth was the maximum we could do from 12th position on the grid. It was a very tough race, very hot, but everything worked perfectly."