Adrian Sutil came away from Malaysia with ten points after finishing 5th, ahead of Lewis Hamilton. That moved him into ninth place in the championship, one point above the seven-time world champion, Michael Schumacher.
It was a result the German was desperate to secure after finishing P12 in Bahrain and P18 in Australia, having suffered problems in both races.
“I needed that finish,” he told the official F1 website. “Having been so competitive at the first race and [having] left the track empty handed was hard to take.”
The Malaysian race was much more positive. Sutil managed to battle with Hamilton after the Brit raced up behind the Force India driver. He then managed to keep Hamilton behind him for 20 laps, until the end of the race, despite the straight line speed advantage the McLaren has.
When asked if he had an exciting race, he replied: “Well at least over the [last] 20 laps when I was fighting over P5 with Lewis [Hamilton]. That was really exciting.”
Sutil expects the VJM03 to remain competitive over the remainder of the season, with regular appearances in Q3.
“I would say that we will be consistent Q3 runners. We probably have to focus a little bit more on the start and see what is going on with the behaviour of the clutch. We are expecting some upgrades at some of the next races.”
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