Force India Formula One team’s rookie test driver Paul di Resta had his first outing here and returned the eighth best timing, just behind team mate Adrian Sutil on the first of the four-day testing programme.
During the run of 74 laps on Wednesday morning, di Resta clocked a best of one minute, 25.088 seconds around the 4.432-km circuit while Sutil took over for the afternoon session when he returned 1:24.272 and put in 28 laps on a day marred by intermittent rain.
As was the case for last week’s test, running was punctuated by heavy rain storms and cloudy sky with high winds. However in a productive day working through set up and control systems checks, di Resta completed over 300 km while Adrian covered 120 km.
Sebastien Vettel (Red Bull Racing) was the quickest in 1:22.593 while seven times World champion Michael Schumacher (Mercedes GP) was sixth on the time charts with a 1:23.803 while doing 111 laps.
Reflecting on his performance, di Resta said: “Today was my first run in the new car and it felt pretty good. The objective was to get as much running as possible and we managed over 300 km, which was a great effort, particularly given the bad weather conditions we had over the morning. It seemed to be drying out and then the rain would return again so you were in a sort of no man’s land with the tyres.
“Even with this type of weather, I could get an impression of the car. It seems stable and good all around, a genuine improvement on the car I drove last year. I’ll be back in the car in Barcelona and am looking forward to it already.”
Sutil said: “It was a short session for me today. I only started my first run just before 4 p.m. when the track was drying in places, but there were still a few damp patches on the racing line. We did two long runs on the slick tyres, but in the mixed conditions, it was hard to get a view on the car. But at this stage all running is good and we are ready to go out again tomorrow to get some more mileage and data on the car.”
