Di Resta baffled by tyre woesposted in F127 | 07 | 2013

    BATHGATE'S PAUL DI RESTA will start a disappointing 18th on the grid for tomorrow's Hungarian Grand Prix. Both he and his Sahara Force India team were left baffled by the poor performance of his final set of soft compound Pirelli tyres.

    "I can't work out what happened," the 27-year-old Scot, who fought his ill-handling car to a fastest time of 1min 22.043secs at the end of Q1, said afterwards.

    "It's been hard weekend. We made some progress ahead of qualifying: we went a second faster than we did on the medium compound all weekend, which I thought was all looking really positive.

    "Then for my final run in Q1, we put a set of soft compound tyres on the car, and all we found was six-tenths, instead of 2.2 seconds, or whatever, which is what you would normally find.

    "I think everybody within the whole team is confused. We can't work out why that should be such a big performance drop.

    "It's almost as if it's a different compound of tyres. But we'll need to work it out: we'll need to do something really special tomorrow, but it's definitely confusing us."

    After dazzling recovery drivers at Monaco, Montreal, Silverstone and Nurburgring, tomorrow's challenge is even more daunting. Last year there were only 19 overtaking manoeuvres in the whole race.

    But Di Resta, backed by Whyte & Mackay Whisky and TW Steel watches, refused to be downbeat.

    "You've always got to stay positive," he continued. "Let's face it: it can't be any worse than today. That's by far the worst we've been in qualifying.

    "I know we've had some hiccups, but today the pace genuinely just wasn't there for some reason."

    Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton qualified on pole, pipping the Red Bull of world championship leader Sebastian Vettel by 0.038s.

    It's Hamilton's fourth pole of the year, and his fourth at the Hungaroring.

    "I was really surprised when they said I was on pole," Hamilton admitted. "I was expecting Seb to get it because he had shown serious pace before: that is why I was surprised."

    "It's great to have pole, but doesn't mean much for the race. It will be tough tomorrow and that is the way it is.

    "It is a shame that we have got a good car, and if we didn't have a tyre issue we would be able to compete.

    "We will do the best we can tomorrow. We will just try and get as many points as we can."

    Vettel meanwhile, who starts the race leading he Ferrari of his closest challenger, Fernando Alonso, by 34 points, had only praise for Hamlton's performance.

    "I think Lewis did an exceptional job today if you look at the gap to Nico (Rosberg was 0.332s slower in fourth)," the three-time world champ said. "You have to be fair and respect that. I'm not arguing with that."

    Romain Grosjean was the best of the Lotus cars, qualifying in third, three places ahead of team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, with Alonso fifth.

    F1 Hungarian Grand Prix — Qualifying:

    1. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m19.388s;

    2. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m19.426s +0.038s;

    3. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1m19.595s +0.207s;

    4. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m19.720s +0.332s;

    5. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m19.791s +0.403s;

    6. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault 1m19.851s +0.463s;

    7. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m19.929s +0.541s;

    8. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m20.641s +1.253s;

    9. Sergio Perez McLaren-Mercedes 1m22.398s +3.010s;

    10. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault no time set;

    Q2 cut-off time: 1m20.545s

    11. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1m20.569s +0.791s;

    12. Nico Hulkenberg Sauber-Ferrari 1m20.580s +0.802s;

    13. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m20.777s +0.999s;

    14. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m21.029s +1.251s;

    15. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 1m21.133s +1.355s;

    16. Valtteri Bottas Williams-Renault 1m21.219s +1.441s;

    Q1 cut-off time: 1m21.612s

    17. Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari 1m21.724s +1.374s;

    18. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m22.043s +1.693s;

    19. Charles Pic Caterham-Renault 1m23.007s +2.657s;

    20. Giedo van der Garde Caterham-Renault 1m23.333s +2.983s;

    21. Jules Bianchi Marussia-Cosworth 1m23.787s +3.437s;

    22. Max Chilton Marussia-Cosworth 1m23.997s +3.647s.

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    Jim McGill

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