Bernie denies Force India TV exposure rumours

F1 boss refuted comments that Force India cars were deliberately left out of the television feed during Bahrain GP final practice and qualifying.

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F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone has denied that the two Force India cars were left out of the Bahrain GP final practice and qualifying televsion feed as a 'payback' for refusal to run in yesterday's free practice two.

Throughout final practice and qualifying, in which Paul Di Resta qualified a commendable10th, neither the Scot nor team-mate Nico Hulkenberg appeared on the world feed, governed by FOM (Formula 1 Management)

The suggestion is Ecclestone was far from happy with the stance taken by Force India and duly punished them, but Ecclestone refuted that claim and said: "Go and have a look and see if there's anybody else.

He told Reuters, "I spoke to our people and they were more or less concentrating on who was going to be on pole, rather than somebody going to be 10th.

"Nobody cares if someone is ninth or 11th. Only the people that are watching a particular team."

Force India however, skirted the issue and refused to comment.

Paul Di Resta though, when asked for his perspective said that he was aware of the comments, but stepped aside any further probes into the matter.

"I have seen some stuff on Twitter but I was sat in the car driving," said the Scot. "So I saw my car."

On the decision not to run in free practice two, Di Resta added: "I support the team, they've said enough about it, and you have to respect it.

"Any lack of running affects you, I'm not going to lie, but the plans were made for a reason and I respect why they were done.

"We're now here to race, and we're going to race tomorrow [Sunday]. There are points up for grabs, and we're going to be out there fighting for them.

"And given where we've qualified I'm even more looking forward to it."

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