Di Resta starts fifth in Brit GPposted in F129 | 06 | 2013
BATHGATE'S PAUL DI RESTA will start his home race, the British Grand Prix, from fifth on the Silverstone grid tomorrow after his best-ever qualifying session (Di Resta excluded from British GP quaifying).
The Sahara Force India racer again emphasised his ability lapping the Northamptonshire circuit in a best time of 1min 30.736secs.
And Paul believes he's in the ideal position to bag a strong haul of world championship points for the team, and push for his first podium finish in Formula One.
"I'm really, really pleased with our qualifying performance today: over the moon. We've known all season that we have good, raw pace in both qualifying and race trim," the 27-year-old Scot said, "and we showed that again today.
"After Monaco and Canada, where qualifying didn't go exactly as we'd planned, today everything went perfectly and I have to give the guys in the garage, and on the pitwall, a big thanks.
"We've done the first part of the job: but now we need to make sure we carry all the positives forward into the race.
"Silverstone's a track I've always loved, and it's a circuit which I believe suits our car. I think we showed that again today too.
"This track takes a lot of commitment and you need to build up your speed, but I think we saved our best till last — and that’s when it mattered.
"For tomorrow our tyre wear looks healthy and we’ve given ourselves a good opportunity to get in some clean air during the race.
"The team's factory is just across the road — in fact you could walk to it from here — and I know we have a huge number of Sahara Force India staff here today watching qualifying, and again for the race tomorrow.
"It's great to have been able to repay all their hard work with this performance in qualifying, and hopefully I can deliver something that extra bit special tomorrow.
"I said after we narrowly missed out on a podium, when we finished fourth in Bahrain, that we'd need to have three near-perfect days to take that one, big final step forward.
"So far we've had two excellent days, and we can see the results. Now we have to maintain this high level of commitment and performance to deliver the ideal race.
"If we can do that, and in front of our home crowd, then we just might be able to improve on what we achieved in Bahrain."
Such was Di Resta's impressive performance, that he was only outpaced by the two Mercedes of polesitter Lewis Hamilton and team-mate Nico Rosberg, and the Red Bulls of Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel in third and fourth respectively.
It's the fifth time in six grands prix that a Mercedes has started from pole position.
It was a miserable day though for Ferrari. Fernando Alonso, who entered the weekend second in the title race, 36 points behind Vettel, starts 10th.
And Felipe Massa, whose Ferrari seat for 2014 is known to be under pressure from Di Resta — after team principal Stefano Domenicali admitted he has been impressed by the Scot — again struggled, managing only 12th
And neither McLarens made it into the top 10, with Jenson Button qualifying 11th, three places ahead of his team-mate Sergio Perez.
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Jim McGill