Sunday March 23, 08:43 PM

We honestly did our best here: Fisichella

By Anand Philar

Kuala Lumpur, March 23 (IANS) While Kimi Raikkonen signalled the return of Ferrari to the top with a telling victory in the Formula One Malaysian Grand Prix, here today, Force India's Giancarlo Fisichella delivered a 12th place finish.

Having qualified 17th, Fisichella had to negotiate heavy traffic as he was off to a poor start. However, using his vast experience to good effect, he climbed to 15th and trailed Rubens Barrichello (Honda) until the Brazilian came in to serve a drive-through penalty. It allowed Fisichella to get in front and eventually finish 12th.

Fisichella's team-mate Adrian Sutil, however, lasted six laps before retired with mechanical problem after moving from 20th to 14th.

Sutil said: 'Very early on in the race I developed a mechanical problem and had to switch the engine off and pull off the track. I am very disappointed with this start to the season, especially after I had to stop so soon into the race in Australia too.'

Fisichella said he was quite pleased with his overall performance after the disastrous season-opener in Australia last week when neither Force India cars finished.

'I think we honestly did our best here. At the start I had a lot of wheel spin and lost a lot of positions, I don't know why but we have to look into it. On my first stint I was suffering a lot of understeer with graining on the soft tyres but then in my stop I adjusted the front flap and went onto the harder tyres and stayed on them for both stints. I am happy with the race pace later on though and it is promising for the rest of the season.'