Di Resta fourth fastestposted in F120 | 11 | 2010
BATHGATE'S PAUL di Resta further strengthened his position for being promoted to a full race seat with Force India next season as the first test on the new Pirelli tyres ended in Abu Dhabi.
The 24-year-old Scot, who drove the car on Friday afternoon and this morning at the 3.7-mile Yas Marina grand prix circuit, finished the two-day test having outpaced regular Force India racers Adrian Sutil and Tonio Liuzzi.
Di Resta's quickest time of 1min 41.615secs on Friday afternoon placed him seventh-fasest of the 13 drivers behind the Ferrari of Felipe Massa who topped the timesheets. Sutil ended the day 10th.
And today, Di Resta's time of 1:41.869s saw him finish the morning session fourth-fastest behind the Ferrari of double world champ Fernando Alonso, the Red Bull of newly-crowned champ Sebastian Vettel, and Rubens Barrichello's Williams.
Behind Di Resta (pictured), seven-time world champ Michael Schumacher clocked 1:42.161s, with the Renault of Robert Kubica a further 0.017s adrift. In the afternoon, Liuzzi — the man Di Resta is predicted to replace — could only manage 1:42.416s, 0.547s slower than the Scot.
"It's been a good couple of days," Di Resta, who flies to China on Tuesday to prepare for next Sunday's DTM Championship finale in Shanghai, said.
"I enjoyed a lot of time in the car and while it wasn't about setting fastest times, I'm pleased with what I delivered. As this was our first time testing on the new Pirelli tyres, it was all about gathering as much information as possible.
"Now the data will be collected — we've another big debrief tomorrow — and fed back into the development programme with the team at Silverstone for next year's race car, the VJM04.
"Obviously I'm hopeful I'm going to be in a position where I'll be racing the car against the established racers, including Vettel who I beat to the Euro F3 Championship in 2006."
While speculation continues about when Force India will confirm their driver line-up for 2011 — predicted to be Di Resta and Sutil — no announcement will be made this week. The Scot will be left clear to concentrate on overturning the three-point deficit to Mercedes team-mate Bruno Spengler in the DTM Championship showdown.
Keep up-to-date with all the latest news by following us on twitter.com/scotcars
Jim McGill