It was a relatively disappointing day for Force India, given their starting positions in the Russian Grand Prix. Sergio Perez dropped from eighth on the grid to tenth at the chequered flag, with team mate Esteban Ocon going from sixth to ninth.
The team would have been hoping for plenty more points this weekend as they look to hunt down McLaren in the constructors’ standings, so a measly three points will be less than they wanted.
During the race at the Sochi Autodrom, Perez and Ocon struggled mainly after getting stuck behind the Haas of Kevin Magnussen.
The Dane managed to get ahead and although the Force India pair were faster and took turns attacking him, neither could find a way past Magnussen and they ended up behind the Haas.
“We tried everything as a team today: trying to push all the time and it’s a bit disappointing not to maximise the points we could have scored.
“We swapped positions [with Esteban] because we thought I could put more pressure on Magnussen, but I couldn’t get through.
“Our race wasn’t the most exciting and in the end we could only follow each other. Overtaking was very hard and maybe we lacked a couple of hundred meters of DRS to be able to make a move.”
Force India now sit on 35 points, 23 behind McLaren with five races left to play. Haas now seem to be out of sight with 80 points in fifth in the Constructors’ Championship.
“We tried our best and we worked well as a team, but in the end P9 and P10 was all we could achieve today,” added the Mexican.