Adam Cooper F1

Force India has confirmed new investment from and co-ownership by Sahara India Pariwar, a leading promoter and patron of sports run by Saharasri Subrata Roy Sahara. The outfit will be known as Sahara Force India F1 Team.

Dr Vijay Mallya and Sahara India Pariwar will both have 42.5% stakes, while the Dutch Mol family will retain 15%.

Mallya said: “I am delighted to welcome Saharasri Subrata Roy Sahara as Chairman of Sahara Force India. It has indeed been a matter of pride for me to put India on the F1 map with Force India and raise the performance of the team to its current levels.

“The Sahara Group has played a very important role in the development of sport in the country and is an ideal partner to take the Force India F1 Team to greater success in the Formula One World Championship.”

Meanwhile Saharasri Subrata Roy Sahara said: “India is reaching new heights in all spheres, including sports. Formula One car racing has always remained a bastion of the western world. The advent of India in this exciting sport has remained a matter of pride for all our countrymen.

“I feel doubly proud that Sahara is the co-owner of India’s only F1 team and I am sure that through the Sahara Force India F1 Team, we will together bring pride and laurels to our beloved nation.”

Red Bull protege Jean-Eric Vergne will take the next step on his path to an F1 seat when he drives for Toro Rosso in FP1 in Korea this weekend.

The Frenchman will replace Jaime Alguersuari in Korea, skip the Indian GP, and then return to deputise for Sebastian Buemi in Abu Dhabi.

Whoever has the least points will then have to sit out the first session in Brazil.

With Daniel Ricciardo in action at HRT Red Bull has four young drivers from which to choose the 2012 Toro Rosso line-up…

Lewis Hamilton was clearly bitterly disappointed after finishing fifth in Japan, and was at a loss to explain his lack of pace.

To be fair his race was badly compromised when he had a slow puncture in the first stint that led to an early first stop. That put him a little bit out of synch for the rest of the race. Matters were not helped by the clash with Felipe Massa, which damaged the car.

However, Lewis was willing to blame himself for the lack of performance.

“My team mate finished first clearly our car was fast enough to win, and I was nowhere near fast enough to compete with anyone today,” he said.

“Today was one of the slowest races I’ve probably ever had in terms of performance. I just need to find out where I lost all that time. Jenson did a fantastic job, and in qualifying I was very close, but in the race I couldn’t hold him to save my life.

“I think it’s me, how I dialled the car in. I don’t know if I dialled the car in as well as he has, maybe. Who knows, but I’m clearly not driving as well as he is. That’s something I can work on.

“My job and my hope is to pick up some pace from somewhere. I was just struggling, I didn’t have any grip. But that’s the way it goes.”

Lewis apologised for the clash with Massa and said he could not see the Brazilian.

“I don’t really know what happened, but I can’t see anything out of my mirrors, they vibrate so much at this race track, I can’t see a thing. So I had no idea he was there. So apologies if we touched.

“It’s the same thing that happened, we always come together, and fortunately nothing bad happened to either of us. It was not intentional. He’s a fantastic driver, he was very quick today, and I was very slow, that’s why he was all over me. I tried my hardest to stay ahead.”

Fernando Alonso qualified in his traditional 2011 fifth position in Japan, and the Spaniard is hoping that a little bad luck for those ahead could give him a chance to get on the podium.

“It went quite OK for us, no problems,” said Alonso of his qualifying session. “Fifth is quite a good position. I started fifth in 90% of the races this year, normally behind two McLarens and two Red Bulls. Today I have Mark behind but Felipe in front, so I’m still fifth once more.

“Hopefully tomorrow I’m starting on the clean side, and I think with a lot of pit stop strategy, because the tyres are degrading quite a lot, we can see an interesting race, and hopefully take any opportunity that Sebastian and the two McLarens give us to be on the podium, because with a normal race I think those three positions are already in the pocket for them.”

Alonso expects the degradation to lead to multiple pit stops: “It has been quite high, but normally on Sunday it improves. I think it will be from two to four stops, but I think more three or four.”

Lewis Hamilton blames himself rather than McLaren for failing to get his final lap in during Q3 in Suzuka.

Hamiltgot the chequered flag as he was about to start his lap after getting caught up with Mark Webber and Michael Schumacher, both of whom were equally keen to get round and start a lap.

Hamilton had to settle for his earlier time, which had been fastest, but was eventually good enough only for third.

“It was nothing to do with the team,” said Lewis. “The team were telling me what I needed to get the lap. The car in front was quite close to me, and I had to make sure I had a gap between myself and the car in front. The two guys behind me were racing to get to the line, and they got past, got past while I was just braking for the last corner.

“There’s not very much to say. It’s not the team’s decision, as I said it was my mistake, I should have got out sooner, but I was making a wing change which meant I went out later, so it was my fault.”

Hamilton said that his pace only became apparent in qualifying because he hadn’t had decent runs earlier in the weekend: “I’ve been quick all weekend, just I’ve got a lot of yellow flags, and not putting the sectors together, just not really done a complete lap. In qualifying, I did. Except the last lap.”

Meanwhile Martin Whitmarsh said that Lewis was wrong to take full responsibility.

“In fairness to Lewis we could have more explicit to him about time running out,” said the McLaren boss. “It was very tight, and people were trying to make gaps. It was a difficult situation, and in my view Lewis is being a bit hard on himself. I think we would have been more explicit in pushing him towards the end of that lap.”

Sauber sources have confirmed that Kamui Kobayashi is set to start seventh in Suzuka after the FIA timing system at the end of Q3 left him in 10th place – having failed to take account of the rules.

Those who fail to set a lap time are split into three categories:

– Drivers who start a flying lap

– Drivers who leave the garage but don’t start a flying lap

– Drivers who stay in the garage.

Within those categories cars line up in number order.

Kobayashi is in the first category because he started a flying lap, although he did not complete it. That puts him ahead of everyone else.

Michael Schumacher intended to start a flying lap, but did not make it round and received the flag. Senna and Petrov also received the flag. They line up in number order, with Schumacher ahead of Senna and Petrov.

Mark Webber says he surprised and disappointed to be only sixth in Suzuka after team mate Sebastian Vettel took pole with a brilliant last lap.

Webber had hoped that he would be able to challenge Vettel here, but was behind him in all three sessions.

“Very surprised to be sixth,” said the Aussie. “I did my best, but not good enough, not quick enough. It was a surprised I couldn’t go with the pace there at the end. Disappointing, not just to miss the second row. Seb obviously did a massive lap for pole, which was a great effort, and I’m disappointed to be third row.

“The car I think was pretty good yesterday on long runs, it was also good on short runs up until the end there. Clearly we didn’t get the most out of the car. So, wake-up and push tomorrow.”

Fernando Alonso says there is more to come from Ferrari after he finished the first day at Suzuka as second fastest, behind Jenson Button.

However the Spaniard cautioned that Red Bull is likely to end up trumping both teams come Sunday.

“I’m sure that all drivers tomorrow will try to find something more,” said Alonso. “Even if Suzuka is a track where if you push a little bit over the limit then you go off the track. In my case I’m sure that tomorrow I can find some more tenths, especially in the first sector, the Esses, always when you go through there you think that you can push a little bit more on the next lap.

“But with this year’s tyres there is not any more the next lap, you have only one chance, so tomorrow in Q3 I’m sure we will find the perfect lap.”

Regarding his prospects for the race, Alonso added: “I think we need to look at the grid position tomorrow after qualifying and then we decide. Our target, our aim is to fight for the podium in the races from now until the end, but we know that Red Bull tomorrow will be very strong, as normally they are on Saturdays. On this type of circuit the normal result is first and second, so we need to fight with McLaren for the third position.”

Sebastian Vettel was happy enough with the first day in Japan, despite a crash in FP1 this morning.

Vettel made the classic Suzuka mistake of running wide at the first Degner corner and failing to get back on track to take the second part. He damaged his front wing on the tyre wall.

Vettel still finished third in that session, and was also third – behind Button and Alonso – in the afternoon.

“I think it was not really a big mistake,” said Vettel. “Mistakes around here can be quite costly. I went off and tried to come back, tried to slow the car down as much as possible, but didn’t make it and hot the wall slightly. Not a big impact, but obviously some damage to the car.

“Not perfect, and it did affect our run plan a little bit. But we had a solid afternoon, it’s pretty tricky this year with the tyres, I think the cars generally are much more alive. After I stopped I had the opportunity to see some of the car I could see for Suzuka they are much more alive than they used to be. Sunday will be quite an interesting race.”

Vettel said it wasn’t easy to take the 130R lefthander with the DRS open.

“It’s not comfortable, let’s say. I think last year we went generally a bit quicker round here, this year we are a bit slower. It’s definitely exciting, not as easy as it used to be, 130R, most of the time we lifted today, usually it was always easy flat. It wasn’t today, especially with the DRS open.”

Asked if it was difficult not to be distracted by the championship situation, Vettel said: “I would say I had a good reminder this morning in the practice not to think about something else!”

Lewis Hamiltonwas in reflective mood when he met the media today, and inevitably his recent run of frustration was a topic of conversation.

Lewis insisted that there is no specific reason why he’s had a disappointing season relative to team mate Jenson Button.

“It’s just the way it is,” said Hamilton. “I’m not doing anything wrong. It’s not my management, like everyone’s talking about. I’m very, very happy with my management, it’s one of the best decisions I’ve made, and I think it’s just been unfortunate. I’ve made some mistakes…

“That’s it you know, and Jenson’s done a good job. People forget that I’m still only 17 points away from second, people also forget that all the people behind Sebastian are also 100 plus points behind, so it’s not just me.”

Asked about the clash with Felipe Massa in Singapore, Hamilton said: “When things go that quick, sometimes you get it wrong. I got a penalty for it, and it’s done and dusted, that’s the way it is. I’ll do it plenty of times over the course of my career. Obviously I’ll try my best to avoid those things but I’ve been in awkward positions this year. I was quite a bit behind and trying my best to get up, and you get caught in incidents.”

Lewis also denied that he was affected by media criticism.

“I don’t read anything so I don’t feel any criticism. But I know everyone here and around the rest of the world is writing stories, and I hear about them. I just live my life. I’m happy, I’ve got great people in my life, great management, family and friends, people that I enjoy being around.

“I’ve got an amazing job, so I can’t really complain, regardless of if people write shit about me, I just keep my head focussed on the main thing, which is trying to win races.”