Austin, Nov 18 (IANS): Force India missed out on points at the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix held at the Circuit of The Americas (COTA) as both their drivers finished outside the points in the penultimate race of the year.
The race was won by four-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel in his Red Bull ahead of Lotus' Romain Grosjean. Vettel's teammate Mark Webber of Australia came in third Sunday.
Scottish driver Paul Di Resta finished 16th following a two-stop strategy while German teammate Adrian Sutil was out of luck and crashed out on Lap 1 after contact with Williams' Pastor Maldonado.
"I made a good start and was in reasonable shape for the first stint. But it soon became clear that we were struggling for pace and not really in the zone with the tyres. We were pushing to do a one-stop race but the tyre wear was a bit higher than expected and I ran out of tyre performance with nine laps to go," said di Resta, who sits in 10th place in the drivers' championship with 48 points.
"It was hard to defend my position so I had to make a second pit stop. It’s a shame because we were quite optimistic before the race and we thought the warmer weather might play into our hands. We will pick ourselves up and look to end the season with a better result in Brazil next weekend.”
Sutil, who started 16th, crashed out on the back straight in the first lap after having contact with Maldonado.
“I made a good start, gained a few positions and was racing ahead of Maldonado on the back straight. For some reason he hit my left rear wheel and I immediately lost control of the car and crashed into the barriers. I don’t really understand why he was so close to me because the track is so wide there. I stayed on my line and there was a lot of space to the right and the left. So it was a very disappointing day,” said Sutil.
Sutil is now 13th in the standings with 29 points while the team sits pretty in sixth in the constructors' standings with 77 points ahead of the last race of the year, the Brazilian Grand Prix this weekend.