Yeongam: Force India driver Vitantonio Liuzzi drove an outstanding race on Sunday and finished sixth from a hopeless 17th start position in the rain-hit inaugural Korean Grand Prix.
Liuzzi's fantastic drive, in which the Italian jumped 11 places, fetched the Force India team eight points and extended its tally in the constructors championship to 68 points. The team stands at sixth position in the rankings with two more races to go for the 2010 season.
Liuzzi bettered his seventh-place finish at the Australian GP for his season's best performance.
The team's German driver Adrian Sutil retired from the race on lap 47 after damaging his suspension in an accident with Kamui Kobayashi of BMW Sauber. Sutil was then handed five-place penalties on the starting grid for the next Brazilian Grand Prix after the collision was adjudged avoidable.
The German was also fined $ 10,000 by stewards for the collision because he was aware of brake problems with his car throughout the race.
Toro Rosso's Swiss driver Sebastien Buemi was also penalised for five places at the Brazilian Grand Prix starting grid for a collision with Timo Glock's Virgin Racing car.
The Yeongam track was drenched by rain throughout the morning and after several delays, the Korean GP started under the safety car as visibility and track conditions were deemed too poor.
Liuzzi was able to benefit from the final safety car to pit for intermediate tyres. He then moved into the top ten and despite heavy tyre wear in the closing stages of the race was able to move past Nico Hulkenberg and Rubens Barrichello to secure the sixth position.
"What a crazy race today, a bit like Australia back at the start of the year and it was very fun to be out there," said Liuzzi.
"It was the right decision to delay the start as there was so much water on the track. Unfortunately, we had to do a lot of laps behind the safety car after that but the track was so slippery that it was really hard under braking."
"Then at the end, it was like a night race without any lights and the steering wheel lights were so bright, it was almost dazzling. Even though there was so little grip, I was able to get into a good rhythm and get a great result for the team," he said.
Vijay Mallya, the chairman and team principal of Force India lauded the performance of Liuzzi, who until now was playing second fiddle to teammate Sutil.
"I do not think I have ever seen a race quite like this one. The constant change in track conditions threw up all sorts of challenges," said Mallya.
"It was a great performance by Antonio today as he kept his head and raced hard until the finish. It cannot have been easy in the failing light and on a damp track on worn tyres but he did brilliantly to secure those crucial points."
The next race is in Brazil before the season-ending battle in Abu Dhabi.
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