Di Resta: We'll go forwardposted in F108 | 04 | 2011
SCOTS F1 RACER Paul di Resta left the Sepang circuit outside Kuala Lumpar today quietly satisfied with his performance in this afternoon's free practice ahead of Sunday's Malaysian Grand Prix.
The 24-year-old from Bathgate, who sat out the morning session while Force India test driver Nico Hulkenberg used his car to carry out aero tests on some development parts, finished the session 16th; but importantly, the rookie's 1m39.625s was 0.184s faster than his team-mate Adrian Sutil. The German had earlier also driven in the morning session.
"Yeh, I'm happy with that," Di Resta, a global ambassador for Whyte & Mackay whisky, admitted afterwards. "Sitting out the morning session is frustrating, but I totally understand the reasons behind it; and after all, it's how I gained experience in the car last year.
"The team and I worked through the programme we wanted. It was quite difficult to find the ultimate set-up, but I think we found relatively where we need to be on old and new tyres, and certainly how to get the wear out of them because they don't seem to be lasting quite as well as in Melbourne.
"Given that this was my first session here I think that it was productive, so hopefully we can sit down tonight, analyse it and go forward tomorrow."
And Di Resta took time to dismiss suggestions that the point he won in Australia, his first point in Formula One, was not won on merit. The Scot, you may remember, was promoted from 12th to 10th after both Saubers were disqualified after they were found to have breached the technical regulations.
"At the end of the day it doesn't matter how you score," Di Resta said. "If you win a race by 10 seconds or a tenth of a second, you still win a race, and that's how it's always remembered.
"The key is we set out to finish the race, and in being there at the end, it worked out for us. The other thing you could say is that their cars were found to be illegal. I don't know how they benefited, but obviously the part wasn't right, and they chose not to appeal the decision as well.
"So I'm definitely pleased with the point. You have to be. In the end it was an achievement. The whole team were pleasantly shocked as to what we managed to get out of that race.
"The reaction from the general public also obviously means a great deal. I'm probably a bit more critical of my performance because of the mistakes I made that people didn't really see.
"But it was a big step, a lot of hard work. We've got that point out of the way and we'll continue to keep driving on."
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Jim McGill