Di Resta lines up fifth at Mugello

Bathgate’s Paul Di Resta maintained his excellent start to the German Touring Car Championship by qualifying fifth for Sunday’s 60-minute race at Mugello in Italy.

The 22-year-old, who topped the timesheets during Friday’s free-practice session, lapped the tortuously undulating 3.2-mile circuit in 1min 43.487secs, 0.408s off the pole time of Audi’s Timo Scheider.

“I’m disappointed because I felt we could have been at least a couple of places further up the grid,” the young Scot said today (Sat) after climbing out of his HWA Mercedes C-Class. “The competition is very, very close this season. Before Timo’s lap the four leading drivers were covered by less than one-tenth of a second.

“Mugello’s a great track and I love racing here, especially because I have a lot of relatives in Italy and therefore it’s kind of a home race for me. Here especially the start is going to be crucial and ideally I’d love to pick off a few of the guys at the first corner.”

It’s the third race in succession championship leader Scheider has started from pole. He lines up alongside the Merc of Brit Jamie Green, and ahead of the Audis of Tom Kristensen and Mattias Ekstrom which fill the second row ahead of Di Resta.

JM 

 

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