Monza: Sahara Force India driver Paul Di Resta was handed a five-place grid penalty and will start which will see him start Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix from the ninth position.
Di Resta who had a very good qualifying round and finished fourth was penalised due to an unscheduled gearbox change.
Resta clocked 1m 24.304s in Q3 to finish fourth and now his penalty adds on to Force India’s woes after Nico Hulkenburg who was eliminated when his car was hit by technical issues and had to leave the race.
Hulkenberg's VJM05 could not set a time following a fuel-pressure issue and finished last. His starting position in the race is yet to be confirmed.
"I'm very happy with my Q3 lap, which was my quickest lap so far - so we maximised it when it mattered. I think the entire team has done an excellent job to get us in this position,” Resta said after the qualifying race.
"I knew I was going to have a grid penalty for the gearbox change, which is frustrating, but at least I will start inside the top ten. The challenge now is to make sure we have the race pace and use the strategy to come away with points," he added.
Hulkenberg was upset with the technical snag and termed the session as a disappointing one.
“A very short and disappointing session for me. I was about to start my first timed lap in Q1 when I suddenly lost drive. I pulled over at the first chicane and the team told me to switch off the car. It’s a shame this happened on a day when the car looks so competitive, but that’s racing,” said Nico.
Starting so far back tomorrow will be tough, but I will try and push through so that we can hopefully come away with something from the race.”
Meanwhile it was McLaren's Lewis Hamilton who took the pole position followed by his teammate Jenson Button and Ferrari's Felipe Massa of Ferrari in the second and the third position.
By Indian Sports News Network
