Di Resta: It's difficultposted in F125 | 06 | 2011
RED BULL'S Sebastian Vettel continued his domination in qualifying when he bagged his seventh pole in eight races; Bathgate's Paul di Resta meanwhile starts tomorrow's European Grand Prix from 12th on the grid after a difficult weekend.
The 25-year-old Scot sat out all but 10 minutes of Friday's two 90-minute Free Practice sessions after Force India reserve driver Nico Hulkenberg crashed Di Resta's race car in the morning session.
With limited track time the Scot narrowly missed out on a top 10 position today after lapping the Valencia harbourside track in a best time of 1min 39.422 secs.
"It was difficult," Di Resta (pictured in action today) admitted. "I think after Friday I was always going to be on the back foot having only done three timed laps. There was an unfortunate situation where Nico had an off in FP1 in my car which caused a lot of damage and took the guys quite a long time to repair yesterday.
"We went into this morning having changed something after three laps that didn't quite work, and we then had to revert back to our original set-up; we are where we are.
See images of Paul qualifying in Valencia today
"I was up a little bit on my final lap in Q2 but I just seemed to make little mistake at Turn 17; I triggered something in the car and lost a downshift which lost me the advantage I'd gained on the rest of the lap.
"But I suppose it is what it is; you have to stay positive from it. We're in a position where I believe I can fight for points. The only thing which is uncertain is that I haven't done a long run with any high fuel, so I'm going into the race with an open mind of where to start he aero balance and stuff simply to get the maximum performance from the car.
"The biggest unknown is knowing how the car will perform under its high fuel load; at what point should you conserve the tyres a bit in the stint? But the biggest concern is what aero balance I'm going to start with, simply because I haven't driven the car with the fuel load.
"There's many things it leads to, even brake temperatures. People have been in this situation before and we'll just try and make the best we can from where we are, but hopefully I can still come through and score some good points."
But Di Resta's performance was praised by Force India owner Vijay Mallya.
"Paul has done an excellent job after losing nearly all his track time yesterday," the Indian billionaire said. "To qualify in P12 shows how well the entire team has worked to recover from a difficult situation.
"For tomorrow, we will fight hard and hopefully bring home some points.”
European Grand Prix, Valencia, Spain. Qualifying:
1. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull-Renault — 1m36.975;
2. Mark Webber, Red Bull-Renault — 1m37.163 +0.188;
3. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren-Mercedes — 1m37.380 +0.405;
4. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari — 1m37.454 +0.479;
5. Felipe Massa, Ferrari — 1m37.535 +0.560;
6. Jenson Button, McLaren-Mercedes — 1m37.645 +0.670;
7. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes — 1m38.231 +1.256;
8. Michael Schumacher, Mercedes — 1m38.240 +1.265;
9. Nick Heidfeld, Renault — No time;
10. Adrian Sutil, Force India-Mercedes — No time;
Q2 cut-off time: 1m39.034s Gap **
11. Vitaly Petrov, Renault — 1m39.068s +1.763;
12. Paul di Resta, Force India-Mercedes — 1m39.422s +2.117;
13. Rubens Barrichello, Williams-Cosworth — 1m39.489s +2.184;
14. Kamui Kobayashi, Sauber-Ferrari — 1m39.525s +2.220;
15. Pastor Maldonado, Williams-Cosworth — 1m39.645s +2.340;
16. Sergio Perez, Sauber-Ferrari — 1m39.657s +2.352;
17. Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso-Ferrari — 1m39.711s +2.406;
Q1 cut-off time: 1m40.131s
18. Jaime Alguersuari, Toro Rosso-Ferrari — 1m40.232 +1.819;
19. Heikki Kovalainen, Lotus-Renault — 1m41.664 +3.251;
20. Jarno Trulli, Lotus-Renault — 1m42.234 +3.821;
21. Timo Glock, Virgin-Cosworth — 1m42.553 +4.140;
22. Tonio Liuzzi, HRT-Cosworth — 1m43.584 +5.171;
23. Jerome D'Ambrosio, Virgin-Cosworth — 1m43.735 +5.322;
24. Narain Karthikeyan, HRT-Cosworth — 1m44.363 +5.950.
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Jim McGill