Di Resta eighth quickestposted in F113 | 04 | 2012
BATHGATE'S PAUL DI RESTA was eighth-quickest in his Sahara Force India in today's Second Free Practice ahead of this weekend's Chinese Grand Prix. The 25-year-old Scot was just 0.993secs behind seven-times world champ, Michael Schumacher, who topped the timesheets in his Mercedes.
“It was a solid afternoon session and a positive start to our race weekend," Di Resta, who sat out the morning session to give seat time to the team's test and reserve driver Jules Bianchi, said today.
"The baseline set-up was pretty good to begin with and we just worked away at fine-tuning that during the session.
"As for the tyres, I would say the medium and softs are quite similar and we managed to get good data during the long runs on both compounds.
"We're in a pretty good place at the moment, but we've still a bit of work to do ahead of qualifying tomorrow. Hopefully we can find just that little bit of extra speed in the car.”
And Di Resta, who posted a best time of 1min 36.966secs, took time to reflect on the three-week break between Malaysia and China, and his strong start to the season.
See more official photos of Paul di Resta in action in China today
"It was great to have a couple of weeks off," he continued. "After Malaysia, I stopped off in India to do a bit more PR work for the team, then flew home for a well-deserved break.
"It was really good catching up with friends and family, but I also stepped up the training again: no rest for the wicked.
"In addition to a lot of gym work, I spent quite a bit of time on the bike building up my stamina. One of the rides we did was up the Col de Madone, which is up into the mountains north of Monaco: fantastic, but tough … but the views were sensational.
"Now it's back to business, and racing. I love returning to China: it's a great place, and Shanghai is a city I really enjoy visiting. It’s such a big place: there's a lot to see and I enjoy it even more each time I go there.
"We head into the race satisfied with our start to the season. I know everyone in the team is pleased to have nine points on the board after two races, and it was important we picked up some good points on such an unpredictable day in Malaysia.
"What's clear is we’ve seen how close all the teams are this year and getting points isn’t easy, so it feels good to start as we mean to continue.
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"The circuit at Shanghai has some unusual features. Take turn one: it's very long and feels like it goes on forever. The key to getting it right is how much entry speed you can carry into the corner.
"But the other thing is you need to look out for one of the biggest bumps of the year: it's just at the entry to the corner, and that makes it even more difficult to take correctly.
"We also saw the effectiveness of DRS at the circuit last year, which helped produce some good racing and it should be the same this year.
"We've a few minor tweaks to the car for this weekend, which hopefully will further increase our performance. Our priority again is to score points, and we'll be doing everything we can to make sure we carry the momentum from the start of the season into Shanghai."
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Jim McGill