Force India achieves 1st F1 pole position at Belgian GP

Force India achieved a historic pole position in Formula One at Belgian GP.

Giancarlo Fisichella has given Force India its first F1 pole during qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix.

Giancarlo Fisichella earned the Indian team its maiden pole with a lap of 1 minute, 46.308 seconds.

Toyota’s Jarno Trulli will start second while BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld will start in third position for  Sunday’s 44-lap race.

Force India F1 is a Formula One motor racing team which was formed in October 2007, when a consortium led by Vijay Mallya and Michiel Mol bought the Spyker F1 team for 88 million euros.

Force India F1 also represents increased Indian participation in Formula One racing, with New Delhi set to host the first ever Indian Grand Prix in 2011. The Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile confirmed the change in name from Spyker to Force India on 24 October 2007.

Force India started with the VJM-01 chassis, an updated version of the previous year’s Spyker car, for the first part of the 2008 season. The team used customer Ferrari engines in 2008, with the team’s existing deal with Ferrari originally running to 2010.

Force India used the Indian flag in its team logo from 2008 with nationalistic pride.

At Monaco GP in 2008, Force India nearly scored their first points. Adrian Sutil had moved up to fourth until Kimi Räikkönen rear-ended him 10 minutes before the end of the race, forcing him to retire. More points were lost in Singapore because the safety car period that ensued after Sutil’s accident ruined Fisichella’s strategy. He had run as high as third earlier in the race.

On 17 October 2008, Force India announced they would stick with the same drivers for the 2009 season, a wise decision.

At the wet 2009 Chinese Grand Prix, Sutil almost secured Force India’s first points, holding sixth place in front of Lewis Hamilton and Timo Glock with six laps remaining when aquaplaning led to the Force India car skidding off the road and crashing out of the race.

At the 2009 Monaco Grand Prix, Fisichella finished just out of the points in ninth place. Incidently both Fisichella and Sutil moved to Q2 during qualifying and secured positions in the top 15.

At the 2009 German Grand Prix, Sutil qualified an astonishing 7th place, the best grid place in the team’s history and battled for the points, reaching second at one point, before crashing with Kimi Räikkönen after leaving the pitlane and being forced to pit again to change a broken front wing. He finished 15th. Fisichella also fought for the points the whole race, but despite being a part of a group that were battling for the final points position, he finished 11th.

Finally after a long wait Force India has claimed the pole position in Belgium GP. We will all be eagerly watching and hoping for the success of Force India and Giancarlo Fisichella.