Q&A with Paul Di Resta (British GP)
Sunday ,10 July 2011
“The more laps we did the more comfortable I got”
Force India’s Paul Di Resta had high hopes coming to Silverstone for his first British Grand Prix, but even he could not have predicted that he’d be starting the race from sixth place after a brilliant run in a tricky wet/dry qualifying session.
How would you sum up your day?
“A little bit of luck getting sixth at the end, but I think the worst case it would have been eighth. A very good job by the team. We came here with a good car, and we’ve got the performance out of it. We missed a lot of dry running, which was going to be unfortunate for me having not done anything here at Silverstone, but the more laps we did the more comfortable I got, and I felt very comfortable at the end. The last lap was nailed, there wasn’t much more coming from it. And to get sixth place at your first British GP is not a bad result on a Saturday afternoon."
What does it mean to get a result like this at your home race?
“You really feel the atmosphere when you drive round, even when you are on an out lap you really see the crowd and you see a lot of British flags in the grandstands. The support has been immense, but it didn’t change our focus in any way. You’ve got to perform 19 times this year. Thankfully we’ve performed well at a point where we probably needed to. But we would have been equally as happy as we are now had we been at another Grand Prix."
How do you feel your pace is over the long runs?
“Definitely better than it has been. We struggled a bit with tyre wear at Valencia. We have changed maybe our approach. How much that will help at this Grand Prix I’m not sure, but there are definitely things coming though in the future that should preserve the tyres quite a bit more. We did a reasonably long run this morning to get tyre wear data, and it was where we thought it was. I think we’re more dependent on the other people not getting it quite on the money. Whether they’ve compromised today for tomorrow is totally unknown. Given the weather, I think everybody’s in the same position.”
Credit: Force India (www.forceindiaf1.com)
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