Perfect race showed car's potential - Sutil

Adrian Sutil finished ahead of the Mercedes at the Nurburgring © Getty Images

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Adrian Sutil praised his strategy at the German Grand Prix for allowing him to show off the potential of his Force India and finish a season's best sixth.

Sutil was the highest placed two-stopper in the race and had a quiet but strong race through the field to finish ahead of both Mercedes works cars and secure Force India eight valuable points.

"It was a great race today and I'm so pleased to get this result for the team because we really deserved it," he said. "We had a great car all weekend and everything just went perfectly. The tyres lasted well and we definitely made the right calls with the strategy, which helped me beat Nico [Rosberg] in the final stint.

"It was actually quite a lonely race for me because I spent most of the time running in clean air so I could really show the potential of the car. To get this result in my home race also makes it extra special and I'd like to thank the fans for their support this weekend. But this is just the start because we still have lots of work to do in the coming races to score lots of points and catch up with the teams ahead of us."

The result moved Force India ahead of Toro Rosso in the constructors' championship after a slow start to the season and team principal Vijay Mallya said he was delighted with the result.

"Today has been a wonderful team performance and I'm delighted to see Adrian finish in sixth place - a result that everybody has been working hard to achieve," he said. "We have been a bit unlucky in the last few races, but today we demonstrated the true pace of the car and delivered the result to match it."

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