Di Resta just misses out on pointposted in F113 | 10 | 2013
BATHGATE'S PAUL DI RESTA narrowly missed out on scoring the world championship point his performance over the Suzuka weekend deserved.
Having qualified 12th on the grid in his Sahara Force India, the 27-year-old Scot lost a place at the start but had moved back up to 12th by the end of the opening lap.
After dropping a further place at the first round of pitstops, Di Resta continued to battle and worked his way up to 10th, and the final point-scoring position, with just five laps remaining.
But as the performance of his Pirelli tyres went off, he began to struggle for grip and he lost the final place to the McLaren of Jenson Button.
"Ok, we didn't score any world championship points, which was frustrating, but we came close," Di Resta said.
"I came within five laps of clinging on to the 10th place I held towards the end of the race. But the performance of the tyres on my Sahara Force India dropped off over the final five laps, and I couldn't keep Jenson behind me.
Related: Is Paul di Resta really under pressure?
"Still, from where we've been over the last few races, we now have a car which is much closer to that which we drove at Silverstone way back in the summer.
"It's now very stable and very predictable, which are two things you couldn't say about the car prior to arriving at Suzuka.
"We leave here a lot happier than when we arrived.
"We've moved a step forward and got the car back at least into a zone in which you can drive it and be competitive.
"We definitely have more confidence in the car and I think we've got the car back working to similar to how it was before, but it's been a long road.
"Now we head to India, which is obviously an important race for our team, and I finally feel we again have a car which will allow us to impress in front of our board members and home fans."
Related: Vettel wins again at Suzuka
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Jim McGill