• Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

Sutil praises strategy switch

Adrian Sutil closed to within two points of Vitaly Petrov in the driver standings with his eighth place © Sutton Images

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• Report:
• Hamilton wins as Vettel retires in Abu Dhabi
  

• Race:
• Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

• Championship:
• FIA Formula One World Championship

• Drivers:
• Adrian Sutil

• Teams:
• Racing Point

Adrian Sutil said a change in strategy helped him secure eighth place in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Sutil started ninth, which became eighth when Sebastian Vettel retired on the first lap with a puncture. Running on the soft tyre Sutil kept good pace with Michael Schumacher in the first stint, but having originally been planning a one-stop strategy his tyres degraded too heavily and he switched to a two stop, something which Sutil praised his team for.

"Today's result is great for the team and just what we needed," Sutil said. "Initially we were planning to do a one-stop race, but the team took the decision to switch to a two-stop strategy because the soft tyre did not last as long as we thought it would. So it was a good call by the team to make the change."

Sutil eventually finished the race 1.1s behind Schumacher having been ahead of him for a number of laps, and he said that he missed out on seventh because he stayed out too long on his second set of soft tyres.

"I spent a lot of the race fighting with Schumacher and managed to get ahead of him for the middle stint. But I probably went one lap too long in the middle stint and he got ahead of me when we were both on the medium tyre at the end of the race. I was close behind him, but we had similar pace and I couldn't get back ahead. Still, we came here to pick up points with both cars, and that's what we've done. It puts us in a very strong position for the final race."

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