Budapest: Force India trail Williams by six points after failing to score a single point from the Hungarian Grand Prix as Nico Hulkenberg finished the race in the 11th position, just ahead of teammate Paul di Resta, here yesterday.
Force India started the race with 46 points, just one behind Williams, but Bruno Senna earned six points by taking seventh position and increased the gap over the Indian outfit in the Constructors’ Championship.
This is fourth time in the season that Force India, which stayed on eighth position, has returned without points from a race.
Force India’s German driver Nico Hulkenberg finished the race in the 11th position. AFP
McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton held off stiff resistance from the two Lotus drivers — Kimi Raikonnen and Romain Grosjean — to win the race, his second of the season.
Raikonnen was second and joining him on the podium was teammate Grosjean. Defending champion Sebastian Vettel was fourth, followed by Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso.
India’s Narain Karthikeyan had a disappointing result as he was forced to retire with just five laps to go after suffering left-front suspension damage.
Another driver to retire was Michael Schumacher whose Mercedes had engine problems even before the start of the race.
Hulkenberg, who started from 10th position on the grid, held his 10th place for about 15 laps and was closely followed by fellow German Nico Rosberg in his Mercedes.
However, Paul di Resta dropped two positions to 14th by lap 11. Force India’s close rival Williams’ Pastor Maldonado had also moved out of top-10 as he was in 12th position.
However, Senna was still in top-10 in the second Williams car, just ahead of Hulkenberg. Hulkenberg took his first pit stop in lap 17 to switch to medium compound tyres from soft tyres and so did Maldonado.
The Force India driver re-joined the race in 12th position.
Force India’s position did not change as Hulkenberg was held back by Rosberg in the 11th slot and Di Resta was struggling behind Maldonado in the 13th position.
PTI
