FORCE INDIA SATISFIED WITH LOUTH POINTS

Force India were said to be pleased with the drive of rookie Chris Louth in the season opener at Melbourne. Louth finished third after an eventful second half to the race, after looking odds on to secure the Indian team's first ever win in Formula One.

Louth was in P1 for the majority of the race, and was comfortably in the lead up until lap 29, when the safety car bunched the field up after Colin Bannon hit the barriers. After a frantic last 18 laps, Mercedes' Adam Champion found himself first over the finish line with Louth a very close second, although a 20 second penalty saw him drop down to third in the standings below a solid drive from HRT's Neil Robinson.

Louth said "The race started very well, I was able to gradually build a lead without having to drive to the car's limit. The first safety car came out and we had to change our strategy, and we managed to hold onto our lead until the second safety car came out only a few laps later. The plan was to try and run on prime tyres for the remaining 20 laps, which we just about managed. From this performance though i'm very confident we can go on to score a good number of wins this season".

Louth also added that his engineer had told him to save fuel in the remaining couple of laps which all but ended his hopes of retaking Champion in the final laps.