At the start of the 2012 Formula One season, it appeared as if Adrian Sutil's career at the top was over. The highly rated German, once linked with seats at McLaren and Ferrari had been dropped by Force India and had been convicted of Grievous Bodily Harm.The conviction came after an incident at a Shanghai nightclub where Sutil allegedly assaulted chief executive of Genii (Renault, now Lotus F1 team owners), Eric Lux. In the end, Sutil recieved an 18-month suspended jail sentence and a €200,000 fine.
Fast forward to 2013 and Adrian Sutil is back in Formula One. After a brief test outing for former team Force India, the Silverstone squad re-hired him. Team principle Vijay Mallya outlined his experience and historical links with the team as to why he was chosen over Jules Bianchi.
Despite less testing time than team mate Paul di Resta, the veteran of 90 Grands Prix showed he'd lost non of the form that impressed many in his first stint in F1. In his first race weekend back though, the 2013 Australian Grand Prix, he recieved a reprimand during qualifying for the unusual offence of 'driving unnecessarily slowly in the pits'. He ultimatley qualified 11th.
In the race however, Sutil stunned the paddock with an impressive display, consistently running in the points paying positions and even leading the race for a period. Whilst the team insisted it wasn't necessarily unexpected, the 30-year old was surprised with his performance.
In the end, Adrian Sutil came home ahead of his team mate, finishing seventh after a mandatory switch to the super-soft tyres left him fighting for grip in the latter stages of the race. Nevertheless, it was a strong and convincing performance. And, if he can keep it up, he could be set to surprise this season.
Images have been taken from f1fanatic.co.uk. No copyright infringement is intended and any images can be immediately removed upon request
No comments:
Post a Comment