Top three for Di Resta posted in F102 | 02 | 2011
BATHGATE'S PAUL di Resta maintained his impressive start to his Force India Formula One racing career by finishing today's second day of testing in Valencia third-fastest.
And the 24-year-old Scot, on his first full day driving the 2.5-mile circuit, was only denied the top slot by two Formula One world champions.
Di Resta's fastest time — set in the morning session — of 1min 13.844secs, was just 0.230secs behind the Red Bull of last year's world champ Sebastian Vettel, and 0.537s behind double world champ Fernando Alonso's Ferrari.
The Scot, one of the only three men to dip below the 1min 14s barrier, was also the only driver in the top three to pilot a 2010 car; his brand new Mercedes-powered Force India car isn't unveiled until next week in Jerez.
And despite that, the Scot was left frustrated at the end of the session which was stopped with just a few minutes remaining when Sebastien Buemi's Toro Rosso stopped on track.
"That was both frustrating and disappointing," Di Resta, a global ambassador for sponsor Whyte & Mackay, admitted afterwards. "I was on my final run and my lap times were dropping as the car got faster.
"I certainly think I could have gone quicker than this morning. In fact my last lap was just 0.35s off my quickest time this morning.
"But when the red flag came out, I knew that was it. We managed to get out for one flying lap right at the end of the session, but the conditions had changed and we didn't manage to improve."
The Scot though — who hands the car over to his team-mate Adrian Sutil tomorrow — was delighted with his day's work, which saw him complete 111 laps and survive an early scare when he had an unscheduled trip to the gravel 1hr 20mins into the day.
"Yeh, that was a bit of a wake-up call," he smiled. "Overall though this was another exceptionally good day of testing for the team. We gathered lots of information for the guys to work on as we prepare for the debut of the VJM04 next week.
"We're now understanding a lot more about the performance of the Pirellis and the differences between the compounds, particularly with regards to long and shorter runs and different fuel loads.
"At this stage we're not going for times, just trying to get representative data to work on. I'm feeling good and well integrated into the team and my new role. There's a really positive atmosphere, which will set us up well for next week when the new car testing programme starts."
Behind the top three, Lewis Hamilton, in the hybrid McLaren, and Renault's Robert Kubica completed the top five.
Nico Rosberg was the only Mercedes driver to run, managing seventh, while Mark Webber got his first taste of the new Red Bull. The Aussie completed only 16 laps on his way to clocking a best of 1m17.365s, 14th-fastest and 4.058s behind Alonso.
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Jim McGill