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Sahara Force India returned pointless for the second consecutive time as Paul di Resta and Adrian Sutil finished a disappointing 11th and 14th, respectively at the Japanese Grand Prix Formula One Race in Suzuka on Sunday.
Di Resta, who started 12th at the grid, didn't have best of the start but drove a feisty race. He made some efforts in the closing stages in his bid to sneak into the points bracket only to end at 11th behind Ferrari's Felipe Massa.
Sutil, on the other hand, made a brilliant start from last on the grid (20th). Despite his efforts to move his way up he was always in the lower midfield fight and had to settle for 14th position.
A disappointed di Resta conceded that his bad start cost him dear and despite a spirited effort later on, he still lost out on the chance to get a point.
"At the start of the race I did not get a good launch and a few cars came by me, and then we lost out at the first pit stop because the Williams of Bottas jumped us. That compromised the second stint, which is why we went very aggressive with an early second stop to get track position and move ahead of the Williams," said the Briton.
"The car felt better for the final stint and it looked like we were on course for a point. In the end we were about five laps too short with the tyre life because I could not defend from Jenson (Button). With four races to go, we need to take the positives from this weekend and will travel to India determined to get back in the points."
Sutil said, "It's been a very tough weekend and starting from the back of the grid made it difficult to get close to the points. In the end I finished P14 and had some good battles, but there was a lot of oversteer in the car and it was not easy to be consistent. The best part of the race was the start because I moved up to P16, but we just did not have the race pace we needed today and could not get the performance from the tyres."