FORCE INDIA FUMING

Force India are said to be disgusted with race stewards at the German Grand Prix after both drivers received penalties which effectively, and literally, ended their race. The team were heading for what would have been their first 1-2 finish of the season, but recently promoted Force India prinicipal Dharmesh Shikinder has stated that his drivers were robbed.

The drama started as Renault driver Phillip Coe, a driver who reportedly has bad blood with the white, orange and green car, hit the pit entrance with a quarter of the race remaining. Race leader Chris Louth was set to lap Coe for the 2nd time, but as Coe made contact with the pit entrance, the safety car was immediately brought out, giving no chance for Louth to make his final pit stop. Teammate Nathan Jefferies was 2 seconds behind Louth on the track and had enough time to react to the release of the safety car, choosing to pit for options to take him to the end of the race.

Four cars had bunched up behind the safety car by the final turn, meaning Louth was to see his advantage wiped away. Louth then went into the pit lane and was expected to come back out in 3rd place, but the stewards ruled that by coming into the pitlane, he had "overtaken" the safety car and immediately disqualified the Brit. Louth was told to park the car down the pit lane, coming to a standstill and furiously throwing his steering wheel out of the cockpit.

Once that had settled down, the safety car came in with 13 laps remaining, and within a few laps Mercedes driver Lewis Goodway passed the Force India of Jefferies into first place. Towards the end of that lap, Jefferies made a risky move down the inside of Goodway, causing the silver arrow to spin out. For the 2nd time in half a dozen laps, the stewards dished out another penalty to a Force India, demoting Jefferies down to fourth place but eventually recovering 3rd place from HRT's Neil Robinson. Many in the paddock thought that the accident was a racing incident, but said with how strict the stewards had been this season, they were not surprised to see action being taken.

Dharmesh had little to say to the media after the race, though what he did say was possibly enough to see him receive a slap on the wrist, maybe even a race ban.

An online Ghanain journalist has tweeted that Nathan Jefferies driver at Force India Mercedes, has suggested to the newly promoted head of catering Vijay Mallya that the one man dual race engineer newly turned team principal Dharmesh Shakinder, be dropped from the role for a race. This comes as no surprise following his lack of information at crucial times, often being up to seven laps late. Often presumed taking a "curry break" at rather irrelevant times.