Force India team manager Andy Stevenson described the impressive Vitantonio Liuzzi as the side' star driver in the Italian GP.

He predicted the Italian would keep his in-form German teammate Adrian Sutil on his toes.

Shoehorned into the VJM02 cockpit in Monza after Giancarlo Fisichella's Ferrari switch, Liuzzi never looked he was driving his first race in nearly two years. Armed with a one pit stop strategy, the Italian was running as high as fourth when a drive-shaft gremlin brought a premature end to his sensational race after 22 laps.

Sutil, on his part, drove a flawless race to finish fourth and earn five invaluable points but Stevenson had no doubt who the real star was.

"From the team point of view, Liuzzi was our star of the week," he said.

"Unfortunately, he could not complete the race. Remember he got into the car when he has done little running since the new regulations don't allow that. All he has done is just aero testing, which is basically testing on straight line. It was a whole new experience since he had raced last.

"He was racing on slicks for the first time and downforce too has changed since his last experience. Still Friday onwards, he did an absolutely fantastic job and we were simply over the moon with his performance," he said.

Looking ahead to the next four races, Stevenson said, "Liuzzi would push Sutil hard. It's clear that he does not want to play second fiddle.

"Liuzzi has clearly proved that he can drive with the best. The way he overtook Heikki Kovalainen, you don't see such manoeuvre in Formula One anymore but someone forgot to tell him that," he said.

The Force India official said it was 'inexcusable' that

Liuzzi's race was compromised due to reliability issues.

"I'm clearly disappointed. This is completely inexcusable. If we want to succeed in modern day F1, we cannot afford to allow a car break down. It never stopped us before but we are working hard to ensure we don't see it again," he said.

He was also full of praise for Sutil, who won his first points for the outfit.

"It was really really good to see him giving Ferrari much hassles. They must be sick of the sight of him," he quipped.

"He did an absolutely fantastic job and if there was any doubter of his talent, he has silenced them all," Stevenson added.