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Disappointment for Sahara Force India on second day of test in Barcelona

Sahara Force India saw an early way back to the pits after there were issues with the driveline. Nico Hulkenberg was just in 36 laps at the second Formula One pre-season testing in Barcelona, when the problem occurred.

The Sahara Force India driver managed to set a lap time of 1:23.893, his best of the day. “The day started well with some set-up work and new tyres runs, but we had some downtime in the afternoon, which limited my mileage. It’s a bit frustrating, but we’ve had a pretty good winter so far and it’s nothing to worry about,” he said.

“I’ve got one more day in the car before we travel to Melbourne, so I will try to make the most of it and carry out a full race simulation,” he added

Disappointment for Sahara Force India on second day of test in Barcelona

Team’s Chief Engineer Jakob Andreasen also felt that plans went haywire.

“It hasn’t been the most straightforward day as we lost most of the afternoon session with a driveline issue. The plan had been to attempt a race distance, so we will need to reschedule this for tomorrow when Paul (di Resta) is back in the car.”

“Fortunately we had a productive morning when Nico carried out some new tyre appraisals of the hard and medium compounds, and we also ran through our race weekend procedures,” he explained.

Lotus’s Romain Grosjean set the fastest time for the second day running at the final pre-season test with 1:22.614.

Scottish driver, Paul De Resta will be on the track on Sunday for the third test session, before being replaced by Hulkenberg.

Disappointment for Sahara Force India on second day of test in Barcelona

Final pre-season test, Barcelona – day two fastest times

  1. Romain Grosjean (Swi) Lotus-Renault – 1:22.614
  2. Jean-Eric Vergne (Fra) Toro Rosso-Ferrari – 1:23.126
  3. Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull-Renault – 1:23.361
  4. Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari – 1:23.447
  5. Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) Caterham-Renault – 1:23.828
  6. Kamui Kobayashi (Jpn) Sauber – 1:23.836
  7. Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) Force India-Mercedes – 1:23.893
  8. Michael Schumacher (Ger) Mercedes – 1:23.978
  9. Lewis Hamilton (GB) McLaren-Mercedes – 1:24.111
  10. Bruno Senna* (Brz) Williams-Renault – 1:24.925
  11. Pastor Maldonado* (Ven) Williams-Renault – 1:25.801

Source: sports.NDTV.com

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Sahara Force India Reveals the VJM05 at Silverstone

Sahara Force India has revealed the 2012 Challenger as Nico Hulkenberg Paul Di Resta pulled the covers off the VJM05 at Silverstone. Both were joined by Jules Bianchi, a reserve driver as the new car of the team was showcased for the first time. The VJM05 is the 2nd vehicle to be designed and developed under the supervision of Andrew Green, a Technical Director as team seeks to build on its 6th position finish in Championship of constructors. Dr. Vijay Mallya, Managing Director and Team Principle said that they have set their sights on challenging for 5th position and for doing this, they will have to start with new campaign by providing the type of form they displayed in 2nd half of last year.

Sahara Force India Reveals the VJM05 at Silverstone

Mr. Otmar Szafnauer, Chief Operating Officer echoed those sentiments as he praised the efforts of the team to design and engineer the VJM05. The VJM05 comes with significantly stepped nose section like the one found on Ferrari F2012, which was also introduced on the same day. Powering the VJM05 will be a 2.4 liter Mercedes Benz V8 engine. Both Hulkenberg and Di Resta will be in their 2nd year as Formula One drivers. The Di Resta was reserve and test driver for Force India in the year 2010, whereas the Hulkenberg performed same role in 2011. Once again the Sahara Force India vehicles will be propelled by Mercedes Benz engines with transmission supplied by McLaren Applied Technologies. It will be the 2nd season with Mercedes KERS.