Force India lamented what looked like a potentially promising weekend for their cars after both drivers were forced to retire on safety grounds.
Adrian Sutil came into the pits for his first stop and was held up for some 15-seconds as the team struggled to remove the left-rear. In turn that held up Paul di Resta who was queuing behind.
Things didn’t get better for the team. Di Resta was held for over a minute during his second stop as this time the front-left failed to budge. The Scot retired a few laps later.
Meanwhile the exact same problem hit Sutil and he too retired from the race.
Team co-owner and principal Vijay Mallya explained that a new captive wheel nut system, debuted at the Malaysian GP, was to blame.
“A very disappointing end to a weekend where we have shown tremendous pace with both our cars,” he said.
“Unfortunately things went wrong in the pits when we experienced an issue with our captive wheel nut system at the first stop, which resulted in major delays for both cars.
“The issue occurred again at the second stop and it became apparent we would not be able to solve it during the race. As a precaution we were forced to retire both cars and will have a full investigation.
“It’s frustrating, but sometimes these things happen in racing. We will take the positives of the strong car performance and look to put things right next time out in China.”
