Force India and Ferrari Predicting Better Performance After Bahrain

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both had hardships during the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Paul di Resta at Force India nearly had the first podium of his career but was passed by Romain Grosjean with six laps to go.

Fernando Alonso had a tragic race too. He qualified third and was racing hard with Sebastian Vettel when his Drag Reduction System stuck open. He had to go into the pits twice to have the team forcibly close the wing and was not able to use it for the rest of the race.

However, both drivers are upbeat and are predicting good performance for the rest of the season. 

Force India

Force India had the race of the team's dreams. Thanks to penalties from Mark Webber and Lewis Hamilton, the Force India started the race from fifth and sixth. Adrian Sutil was not able to take advantage of the strong start and finished 13th after starting 6th. However di Resta took full advantage of his chance and climbed from fifth to the lead for a few laps.

He held second for much of the second half of the race until Kimi Raikkonen passed him, and he was trying hard to score the first podium of his F1 career until Grosjean passed him. The fourth-place finish matches di Resta's previous best from the Singapore Grand Prix last year.

"I ran very strong in race and was strong throughout the weekend. I led for quite a while. We can be on the podium one day.

We were always going to be disadvantaged with our strategy and unfortunately I think Grosjean not qualifying, and having two new sets of medium tires, [was] always going to be strong.

"[Fourth] is a big credit to all the boys. We didn't get the rewards in Malaysia but to come away with one really good results before the European season is very good," said di Resta.

He also said that the team has updates for the car ready for the Spainish Grand Prix. 

Ferrari

Ferrari also qualified well with Alonso in third and Felipe Massa in fourth. Neither car did especially well, but Alonso was able to salvage some points by finishing eighth. Massa was not so lucky with a 15th place finish. 

"Fernando would have done a very good race, so we need to make sure that in the future we don't have these kinds of situations," said Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali. 

Alonso is now 30 points behind Vettel in the championship and fell from third to fourth place. 

"With only four races gone, there is plenty of time," said Domenicali. 

Alonso remains hopeful that the team will turn itself around. 

"I am sure that the positives will come back and the negatives we had on our side maybe will affect the others soon.

"We need to stay focused. The championship is so long and there is no use to cry too much," said Alonso.

Source: Autosport [1,2]