VIjay Mallya on cloud nine after team's best performance of season

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Vijay Mallya was over the moon on Sunday as his Formula One team Sahara Force India enjoyed its strongest performance of the season at the European Grand Prix in Valencia. German Nico Hulkenberg finished fifth and Scot Paul Di Resta came home seventh as the Indian-owned team earned 16 world championship points.

Mallya said he was delighted to see his cars in top-10. “A thoroughly enjoyable race. It was a rollercoaster contest with many twists and turns, but I feel we have come away with the points we deserved given our performance level this weekend. Both drivers pushed hard, kept out of trouble and made their different strategies work. Paul recovered the ground he lost under the safety car and Nico had to drive most of the race without KERS, so it was an excellent performance by him,” the business tycoon added.

Mallya vowed that the team’s strong show will continue. “It has set us up perfectly for Silverstone in two weeks’ time where we will be determined to build on this momentum in our local race (the team’s factory is based in England),” Mallya added.

Hulkenberg, who posted his best rest in Formula One career, said ” A great result for everyone in the team and for me personally. Fifth place is a great achievement after a very long and difficult race. The
two-stop strategy worked well, but the last stint was very long and it was hard to hold off the cars behind me on fresher tyres in the last few laps. So the race was a bit messy at times, but very entertaining and it feels great to come through and score such a good result for the team. We got a bit lucky with some cars dropping out, but we were in the right place to capitalise on things,” the German said.