Both the Sahara Force drivers missed out on Q3 in the qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix as Paul di Resta will begin the race from 11th place while Adrian Sutil from 13th, in Shanghai.
-Hamilton on pole for Mercedes in China
Di Resta marginally improved his timing in Q2 but his best lap of 1:36.287 could not get him into top-10 shootout.
Sutil also improved on his Q1 timing but his fastest lap in 1:36.405 was good enough for 13th spot on grid.
Lewis Hamilton won his first pole position with Mercedes and joining him in the front row was Kimi Raikkonen in his Lotus.
Di Resta said his position on the grid was not bad and scoring point was a good possibility.
"I think P11 is a reasonable result considering the difficulties we had during final practice where our performance level dropped away. The changes we made ahead of qualifying improved things and in the end I just missed out on making Q3.
"I don't think that will make much difference tomorrow because it’s going to be a race all about making the tyres last," the Scot said.
Sutil said he expected a better qualifying but something did not work for him.
"...for whatever reason the warmer conditions during qualifying did not work to our advantage. There was no major problem with the car and I felt happy with the balance, but I lost some performance during qualifying and didn’t have the grip to go any faster.
"The positive is that I’m able to choose my starting tyres tomorrow and I have all new sets available for the race, which should allow us to target some points in the race," he said.
Force India had returned empty-handed from the last race in Malaysia due to wheel-nut issue in the car.
Photograph: Mark Thompson/Getty Images
