Sutil: Force India has proved itself

The German qualified fourth in the wet session and then held his own with the frontrunners in the dry race, fending off the charging Lewis Hamilton's McLaren to finish fifth.

"The race was exciting and fifth place in the end was a great achievement," Sutil said.

"I was hoping for a good race as we were so close in the first two races but then had a little bit of back luck that stopped us scoring. It was a good overall performance from the team.

"It was always very close with Lewis just behind in the closing stages but I knew that if I didn't make any mistakes I wouldn't have any problems, so it was just trying to concentrate. I had to push, of course, but it was under control.

"I think we can now carry this forward to China: we are still a good top 10 competitor and we need to continue like this - Q3 and a few points each race would be great at this stage in the season."

Team boss Vijay Mallya agreed that Force India had now proved it was a consistent points contender.

"Three races and three times in the points, I am absolutely delighted," he said.

"Adrian had a strong race, keeping a cool head under pressure when a charging Lewis Hamilton was right on his tail. Once again we've proved the pace of our car and our ability to really mix it in the midfield."

But he admitted to some disappointment for Tonio Liuzzi, who was also running in the top ten before an early throttle problem.

"It was disappointing not to have two cars in the points, but it is overall very positive that we can race hard and score points entirely on merit," said Mallya.