Di Resta targets pointsposted in F105 | 04 | 2011
BATHGATE'S PAUL DI RESTA returns to Formula One action in Malaysia this weekend for the first time since scoring his first world championship point on his debut in Australia. And the 24-year-old Scot believes his 10th place at Melbourne has eased the pressure on him.
"I definitely think scoring that point in my first grand prix has lifted the pressure," Di Resta, said today after completing a fitness session to help him acclimatise to the warm and humid conditions in Kuala Lumpar.
"Obviously scoring that point confirmed to anyone who doubted it that I have the pace and ability to be racing in Formula One. That point will always be there now in the record books.
"But now I want to go out there and score more. I'm desperate to score more points and I'll continue to keep pushing to do that."
The Scot, who will again partner team-mate Adrian Sutil in their Mercedes-powered Force India cars, will sit-out the Friday morning practice session handing his car to the team's test driver Nico Hulkenberg. And Di Resta admitted it means he'll be playing catch-up throughout the weekend.
"Missing the first session at any track is a setback," Di Resta, who last year benefitted from being the team's test driver by driving in eight Friday practice sessions, explained.
"It means I'm straight into practice two on Friday afternoon; you don't get time to think about the morning session over lunch and decide what changes you'll make. You're straight out there in the afternoon.
"Then on Saturday I've only got two brief runs before we're into qualifying; missing Friday morning actually hampers you quite a bit."
And Di Resta is hoping Malaysia's notoriously wet weather doesn't further hamper his performance at the fast, flowing Sepang circuit.
"Basically it rains here every day and that means the circuit is continually changing," he continued. "So I also have to hope I don't lose valuable track time simply because of the rain."
But Di Resta believes the work he did last week on the Force India simulator has further helped his preparations for only his second grand prix race.
"The sessions went well," he explained, "and the team and I ran through some good, solid, productive programmes. At the end of the sessions we had a good direction of where we want to go with the car in terms of setup this weekend.
"But as will be the case at every grand prix I race at this year, I'm turning up with little or no knowledge of the circuit and its demands in real race conditions. It's all a learning process, but hopefully we can deliver again this weekend."
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Jim McGill