Fernley shrugs off Force India's Monaco disappointment

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Force India deputy principal Bob Fernley insists that the team's slump in Monaco wasn't as damaging as it might have been.

Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon has finished in the points in the first five races of the season. But that streak came to an end last weekend, when the team failed to finish in the top ten with either driver.

Perez was forced to make two extra pit stops for repairs after contact with Carlos Sainz at the beginning and Daniil Kvyat in the closing laps. Ocon suffered a ;puncture and finished in 12th place, one ahead of his team mate.

The result allowed Toro Rosso to claw back eight points in the team championship. But Force India remains safely in fourth position, 24 points ahead of their rivals.

“What’s happened has happened,” Fernley told Motorsport.com this week.. “It has to come to an end at some point.

"If you’re going to have a bad day, hopefully we’ve had it all in one go," he added.

“It wasn’t so bad for us. We lost a few points to Toro Rosso, but we’re still well clear."

Force India defends Perez in Kvyat knockout move

Fernley was hoping that the next two races - both held on similar temporary street circuits - would be good for the team.

"We’ve got two races that should be strong, for Williams and ourselves," he predicted. "Particularly Montreal for Williams, while Baku will be good for us.

"We’ll have a look at it once we’ve done those two," he added. "But we can’t afford to be complacent."

Fernely added their was no rift between Perez and the team. The Mexican had responded angrily when told to back off during the Monaco Grand Prix because of an overheating engine.

"I don’t blame him at all, I think our pitwall handled it very well. He was racing," said Fernely.

"If you get too close to somebody, the engine overheats," he explained. "You can’t get close and overtake them and prevent them from overheating!"

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.