Force India drivers steal the show with second row lockout!

Racing Point Force India's entry into F1 came with a bang following the performance in qualifying of Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez who will line up alongside each other on the second row of the Belgian GP grid.

After several weeks during which the pink squad went from a near demise to a salvation, only for its presence in Spa to be called into question on the back of a legal imbroglio.

A positive outcome however on Thursday meant the new Force India could get down to business, and it did just that on Saturday afternoon with a bit of help from the elements.

Both Ocon and Perez made it comfortably into Q3, but a bargain on slick tyres at the outset, just as a bout of rain hit the track, appeared to wreak havoc on its chances of a good qualifying.

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It proved however to be a blessing in disguise as it awarded the team the necessary time to judge the conditions and prepare for a late run on intermediates during which the pink cars were the class of the field behind front-runners Hamilton and Vettel.

"It’s fantastic. It’s great to get P3 at such a difficult time with the team we had and starting afresh and I’m definitely happy with that result, I wasn’t expecting it," enthused Ocon when all was said and done.

"The guys have done a fantastic job, we changed the tyres really quickly and managed to go out, so that was fantastic, and I put a clean lap in and managed to get third. Let bring it on tomorrow!"

Perez was obviously equally ecstatic with the team's performance, underlining its good fortunes compared to what it has endured in the last few months.

"It's a great result for the team after all the issues we had and the bad momentum," said the Mexican.

"To come back and do this kind of result today is an amazing result for the team, for all our partners, everyone involved. It's been a tough couple of months. So very pleased with the result."

However, Perez considered himself lucky to have survived the final segment of the session, let alone finish it with the fourth best time, having been inches away from throwing it all away when he got caught out by the tricky conditions on his slick tyres and suffering a big moment in the middle of eau Rouge.

"In a way I'm quite lucky I'm here, because the moment in Eau Rouge - not knowing what the track's like, just trying to feel the grip - and all of a sudden you lose the car… And in Eau Rouge when you lose it you normally crash. I didn't and I'm pleased to be here."

On the Force India pitwall, the hectic session was followed by joy and elation, with team boss Otmar Szafnauer congratulating the troops.
"Not bad for a new entrant!" joked the American as he took in the result.

"It's very good, we got lucky with the decisions that we made, when the rain came. We had a quick car anyway but didn't anticipate being that far off the grid, so some good decisions by the engineers.

Szafnauer admits he didn't believe they would pull the result they did when both Perez and Ocon added another lap on their slick tyres in the challenging conditions at the beginning of Q3.

"We were unsure, the drivers should give us more feedback. Here in the pitlane it wasn't raining that hard, so we thought slicks was the right thing."

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