Sutil not disheartened despite no points

The Force India driver was one of the stars of qualifying on Saturday and again shone in today's race, running as high as second after showing very competitive pace.

His hopes of a strong result, however, came to a sudden end when he made contact with Kimi Raikkonen after his first pitstop, damaging his front wing.

Sutil was forced to pit to replace the wing and dropped down the order, finishing in 15th.

"We shouldn't be that disappointed with this result as we have had a good weekend and the next one will come very soon," said Sutil. "All our development shows we are on the right track and that we are much more competitive.

"It was a good race for me: the start was a bit difficult but I lost just one position. In the first stint I did really well and it was looking very promising as I was up to second by my first stop.

"When I went out of the pitlane I saw Kimi coming on the outside of the corner and I just tried to hold my line but he went to the outside and I touched him and lost part of my front wing.

"That's really when I thought the race was over for the points as I had to come back in. I kept pushing hard though as you never know what will happen.

"Overall I think we've learnt a lot; it's the first time starting in the top 10 and it's a different race up there! It's been a good push for everyone in the team to get some more development so we can finally get some points."

Team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella was also encouraged by the team's performance after finishing in 11th position, having started from 18th.

"After the qualifying I had yesterday, I thought it would be a difficult race but I really enjoyed it and again got close to the points," said Fisichella. "I had a good start and overtook a lot of cars in the opening laps. I could catch and pass people quite easily, although I started to get a lot of graining on the softer tyres near the end of the first stint.

"On the second stint it was again quite good and then right at the end of the race I was really catching the group in front. Perhaps with a few extra laps I could have found a way past a couple more to try and challenge Kovalainen for eighth.

"I think we can be quite happy with this weekend, even if again we didn't get any points. We've taken a step forward and with some more developments coming through I think we could really have some more great races."