Chinese F1: Sahara Force India drivers finish in top-10

Sahara Force India drivers Paul di Resta and Nico Hulkenberg posted quick practice times to finish in top-10 after the opening two sessions at the Shanghai circuit ahead of the race on Sunday.

While di Resta was the eight fastest (1:36.966s), his partner was slightly slower to finish ninth (1:37.191s) in the second practice session. Mercedes' Michael Schumacher was the fastest on Friday (1:35.973s), ahead of McLaren's Lewis Hamilton who was the quickest in the first round of practice.

Force India drivers though were pleased with their performance and said that they were happy with the way the car behaved. "A very short FP1 with the mixed weather, but the running I managed was still useful because we did a few laps on the medium tyre towards the end of the morning. Then we had a very smooth FP2 in the dry conditions," said Hulkenberg.

Di Resta was equally excited with his drive. "It was a solid afternoon session and a positive start to our race weekend. The baseline set-up was pretty good to begin with and we just worked away at fine-tuning that during the session."