Best yet to come for Di Resta
Tuesday 2nd August 2011
Paul di Resta is keen to finish his debut Formula One season on a high after putting his recent struggles behind him at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
The Scot earned the best result of his F1 career to date on Sunday, finishing seventh despite a near-miss midway through the race when he was forced on to the grass to avoid McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, who had just spun.
Di Resta started the year well by scoring a point in each of the first two races for Force India, earning plaudits for out-performing and out-qualifying more experienced team-mate Adrian Sutil.
But then from the Monaco Grand Prix onwards, Di Resta suffered a run of bad luck he last week described as "a joke".
The 25-year-old was involved in a number of incidents that either resulted in him being given drive-through penalties or retiring from races.
Di Resta needed a strong finish and duly delivered at the Hungaroring, meaning that he can head into F1's summer break with a smile.
"We've three weeks now for everybody to recharge their batteries, be happy and just enjoy it," said Di Resta.
"If something had happened it would have been very disappointing, but after this, it's just nice now.
"Adrian scored a lot of points in the last race in Germany, I scored a lot of points in Hungary. It's a big boost to the team.
"The performance updates that have come through have benefited us and we have taken advantage of it."
Among the lows Di Resta has suffered in recent races were two collisions with Renault's Nick Heidfeld in the Canadian and German grands prix, plus a botched pit stop in his home race at Silverstone which dropped him down the order after qualifying an impressive sixth.
Now, though, Di Resta hopes his strong result in Hungary will preface more of the same, starting with the Belgian Grand Prix at the end of the month.
With eight races remaining, Di Resta added: "Going to Spa and Monza (Italian Grand Prix) we can be fairly optimistic of scoring good points.
"They've been good tracks for the team in the past, so we need to be aggressive, but at the same time be methodical and have a good, solid approach.
"This year is a bit different to last when we started well, only to fade away.
"This year we started out average, but we are now the chasing team, with updates pushing us on and we're getting a good understanding.
"It's something new for the team, but we're young and we'll certainly give it a shot."
Credit: ESPN STAR (www.espnstar.com)
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