Mallya says Germany form just a 'blip'

Vitantonio Liuzzi and Adrian Sutil finished two laps down in 16th and 17th positions at Hockenheim following a difficult qualifying - with Liuzzi's heavy crash in Q1 causing the session to be red flagged - and an incident in the early stages of the race when both drivers were accidentally given each other's tyres having already made contact on lap one. The team was forced to pit both cars again to get the correct tyres in order to avoid a penalty.

But Mallya is confident the team can bounce back at the Hungaroring following further developments of the Force India VJM03.

"Germany was very disappointing for the team but I see it as a blip rather than anything more significant," he said.

"It started very well, of course, with Adrian P1 in first free practice, but after that we didn't get to grips with the track and one issue led directly into the next.

"However this clearly cannot happen again as the race for fifth and sixth in the championship is closer than ever now and we need to finish with at least one car in the points at each race from now on."

He cited the arrival of the team's blown diffuser for Hungary as a reason for optimism.

"We can however be confident that we have enough strength in current performance and the new developments coming," said Mallya. "On Friday we will test the blown diffuser, which we believe will give us a big step forward. I think we will hold our own in Hungary."

Liuzzi remains cautious ahead of this weekend's race - but is keen to put his heavy qualifying accident at Hockenheim behind him.

"The accident in qualifying was a real disappointment", he said, "as I got caught out on a damp patch on the kerb. But because of where it was, the car went straight into the wall and I missed the rest of the session and started P22.

"But Hungary is now coming very soon and although we know it could be a tough weekend for us because of the strength of the competition now, we still have a chance to fight for points.

"It's like a big Monaco in that the circuit is very twisty. And at Monaco we were quite strong."