Di Resta impresses on first F1 run

Bathgate’s Paul di Resta impressed on his first official outing as reserve and test driver for the Force India team, but the 23-year-old Scot’s performance was handicapped by heavy rain and showers which swept across the Jerez circuit.

“Yeh, it wasn’t ideal,” Di Resta — who eventually finished eighth-quickest, immediately behind the team’s No 1 driver Adrian Sutil and the Mercedes of sixth-fastest man Michael Schumacher — admitted today, “but the car felt pretty good.

“We all came to Spain expecting sunshine and warmth, instead we got cold and rain. Just like being at home really. The objective was to get as much running as possible and we managed over 300km, which was a great effort, particularly given the bad weather.”

Di Resta fired his car’s Mercedes engine up and rolled his Force India VJM03 out of the team’s garage just five minutes after the track opened and quickly showed his pace by lapping the damp  2.751-miles track in 1min 33secs.

The Scot continued to improve and at one time was fifth-fastest before he spun his car 180-degrees after being caught out by a sudden downpour which affected parts of the track.

But after returning to the garage, and then completing another lap to check the car’s systems, Di Resta went out and posted his fastest lap, a 1:25.088s.

“Everything was working well,” he continued. “I was managing to get quicker in the car as I become more comfortable with it and the conditions. But then the rain came again and that essentially scuppered any chances I had of improving my time.

“Having said that, the programme I was following today in terms of developing the car wasn’t about maximising our speed. We were testing and evaluating a number of different aspects of the car; we achieved what we set out to achieve.

“Even with this type of weather though I could get an impression of the car. It seems stable and good all round, a genuine improvement on the one I drove last year. I’ll be back in the car in Barcelona next week and I’m looking forward to it already.”

Di Resta completed a total of 74 laps during the day, much of which was spent gathering data on the car when it was running with heavier fuel loads than the other cars on the track.

Ironically, shortly after Di Resta had handed the car over to his German team-mate Sutil midway through the afternoon, the weather improved, the sun came out and the circuit dried allowing those still on-track to bring their times down.

While Sutil eventually managed to lap just 0.816s faster than the Scot, it was Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel who topped the timesheets with a bast time of 1:22.593s, 0.424s ahead of Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren, who in turn was 0.187s quicker than Felipe Massa’s Ferrari.

JM

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