Bathgate’s Paul di Resta increased the pressure on Force India team-mate Tonio Liuzzi when the posted a faster time than the Italian in free practice ahead of Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix.
While Liuzzi quickest lap was 1min 23.284secs on the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, 24-year-old Di Resta lapped the track 0.080s faster than his more experienced team-mate.
“Yeh, I’ve got to be happy with that,” the Scot, who again piloted Adrian Sutil’s Mercedes-powered car in his role as Force India reserve driver, admitted today. “It was a good session for me.
“As usual, setting a fast outright time wasn’t the priority for me. Instead I was concentrating on running through the programmes the team required ahead of qualifying on Saturday, and Sunday’s race.
“Definitely what helped me though was this was my fourth time I’ve taken part in free practice at a grand prix weekend, and I’ve drive Adrian’s car a number of times, so I was able to start where I left off in China three weeks ago.
“Because of that, it didn’t take me too long to get up to speed and we got some productive running, particularly in the early part of the session, which is when the track was slightly quicker. I’m definitely happy with what I’m contributing to the team.”
While team bosses, including chief race engineer Dominic Harlow, are at pains to stress Di Resta is not being groomed for an immediate promotion into a full race seat ahead of Liuzzi, it is clear the Italian is coming under more and more pressure.
Di Resta, who heads straight from Barcelona to Monaco for next weekend’s Blue Riband Formula One race, continues to impress not only those in his Force India team, but also a number of other team bosses on the pitlane. He was only 0.055s slower than Felipe Massa’s Ferrari.
While McLaren-Mercedes duo Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button topped the timesheets at the end of the first session, Hamilton topping the timesheets with a 1:21.134s, it was the Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel who was fastest in the afternoon. The German clocked 1:19.965s, just ahead of his team-mate, Aussie Mark Webber.
JM