Di Resta scores againposted in F110 | 04 | 2011
BATHGATE'S PAUL DI RESTA continued his excellent start to his Formula One career by scoring for the second grand prix in succession. The 24-year-old Scot eased his Force India home 10th in today's Malaysian Grand Prix, one place ahead of his more experienced team-mate Adrian Sutil.
Di Resta, who sat out Friday morning practice, again displayed the maturity which has seen him rapidly become one of the most sought after young racers in the paddock.
Having successfully negotiated the hectic start to the race — and safely handled the pre-race interview by the BBC's Martin Brundle on the grid — Di Resta delivered another mature performance which far outweighed his limited F1 race experience.
With only a handful of laps remaining, Di Resta was on course for ninth place, but with only two laps to go he was caught and overtaken by the Mercedes of seven-times world champ Michael Schumacher. The German took advantage of the fact is car was fitted with fresher Pirelli tyres. Afterwards though, Di Resta admitted he was delighted with his performance.
"I have to say, I'm happy with that," he told me. "To score my second word championship point in my second race is brilliant for me.
"I have to say big thanks to the team because they did a wonderful job on race strategy. But it was disappointing not to be able to hold off Michael at the end; he had fresher tyres because we had stopped a bit earlier for my third stop than predicted.
"But I'll be honest; I also didn't want to risk the championship point we'd all worked so hard for throughout the weekend.
"I think the DRS showed some good racing today, so maybe we can be confident that in China our race pace may even be a little bit better. We were battling with cars that were a little bit quicker than us today, so overall I think we had a great race."
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Jim McGill