Bathgate’s Paul di Resta starts tomorrow’s round of the DTM Championship at Zandvoort in Holland from third on the grid and with a strong chance of closing the gap in the title race.
The 24-year-old Scot, who will return to Formula One duties with Force India on Friday at the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps, starts four places ahead of championship leader and Mercedes team-mate Bruno Spengler.
“Of course it would have been great to have started from pole position, but I slid just a bit wide at one corner and that was enough to miss out on pole by 0.773secs,” Di Resta explained.
“But as it was a fortnight ago, the car is just continuing to get quicker and quicker through the weekend so I’m confident I can push right from the start and get my first race win of the year.”
Di Resta, third in the championship and 25 points adrift of Spengler, finished second behind the Canadian a fortnight ago at the Nurburgring in Germany. Yesterday though, Spengler struggled at the dusty circuit which sits right alongside the North Sea and qualified a distant seventh.
Defending champ Timo Scheider took his first pole of the year. The Audi driver lapped the circuit in 1min 31.590secs, 0.696s ahead of last year’s winner Gary Paffett’s Merc.
JM