Di Resta's full shiftposted in F109 | 03 | 2011
SCOTS FORMULA ONE ace Paul di Resta put in a full shift on the second day of the final pre-season test at Barcelona. The 24-year-old Scot not only ran a full qualifying simulation in the morning, but followed that up with a completing a complete race distance — complete with pitstops — in the afternoon; in total Di Resta drove 118 laps of the 2.9-mile Circuit de Catalunya and covered more than 500kms at race pace.
"Yeh, that was a reasonable day of running," the Scot, whose best time of 1min 24.334secs in the morning session had him sitting second-fastest before he concentrated on the race distance in the afternoon, said.
"We had good reliability and the clear weather meant we got through our complete programme. In the morning I worked through the qualifying sims and in the afternoon it was on to the race runs.
"I've done pit stops before — I did them in Friday practice sessions last year — but trying them in race conditions was a new experience for me. However they were similar in length to what I've experienced in the DTM over the past four years so I think I dealt with them OK.
"I'll have a break tomorrow while Adrian (Sutil) takes over the car to test some new aero upgrades we're running for the first time. I'll get my chance to run them on Friday and look forward to seeing how much time they will give."
Di Resta, who slipped back down the timesheets in the afternoon to eventually finish sixth as other teams worked on different programmes, was overseen by Force India circuit engineering director Dominic Harlow.
"Paul was back in the car today, this time for a full day of running," Harlow explained. "He covered over 500km, running our standard Saturday practice and qualifying programmes before lunch and then moving to a full race simulation in the afternoon.
"We also had our full race crew here today to give them some live pit stop practice. Reliability was good again, which allowed us to cover our primary objectives for today."
Red Bull meanwhile continued its domination of the pre-season testing when world champ Sebastian Vettel topped the timesheets. The 24-year-old German clocked a best time of 1m21.865s, 0.531s ahead of Sebastien Buemi's Torro Rosso, with the Renault of Vitaly Petrov third.
McLaren endured another very tough day at the office. Former world champ Lewis Hamilton's progress was handicapped by a hydraulic leak and then two exhaust issues. The problems forced the team to abandon a planned race simulation. Hamilton later rose to fourth on a single-lap, qualifying-style run in the afternoon.
And Ferrari found itself back in fifth with Felipe Massa. The Italian team introduced a new exhaust and some aerodynamic changes, but its form was more encouraging than the result suggested. There were no one-lap-only runs from the Brazilian, whose best time came at the start of a five-lap outing, and on longer runs of around 14 laps his pace often matched Vettel's.
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F1 Test — Day 2, Barcelona: End-of-day timesheet:
1. Vettel, Red Bull 1m21.865s
2. Buemi, Toro Rosso 1:22.396s +0.531
3. Petrov, Renault 1:22.670s +0.805
4. Hamilton, McLaren 1:22.888s +1.023
5. Massa, Ferrari 1:23.324s +1.459
6. Di Resta, Force India, 1:24.334s +2.469
7. Kobayashi, Sauber 1:24.436s +2.571
8. Rosberg, Mercedes, 1:25.807s +3.942
9. Trulli, Lotus 1:26.090s +4.225
10. Maldonado. Williams, 1:26.989s +5.124
11. D'Ambrosio Virgin 1m28.982s +7.117
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Jim McGill