Di Resta: Coming out on inters my call

Paul di Resta

Paul di Resta has revealed that it was his call to come out on intermediate tyres at the start of Q3.“And it was my call completely – I’m absolutely claiming it! We got out there in optimum track conditions – it was a bit wet in sector three – but at the same point had we been out at the end in the same conditions to everybody we wouldn’t have been where we are.” said Di Resta.

With light drizzle at the start of Q3, everyone bar Di Resta came out of pits on slick tyres, trying to get a quick lap on dry tyres before track becomes damp. However the track turned out to be too wet for slicks and everyone had to pit for intermediates on their out-lap.Di Resta, meanwhile, came out straight on intermediate tyres and set a lap time of 2.02.232 which looked enough for pole position until the dying minutes of qualifying session.But the rain stopped earlier than Paul di Resta’s expectations, and Mercedes and Red Bulls were able to improve on their laptime and force the Di Resta down in 5th place. The Scottish driver couldn’t take advantage of the drying track as he was already in the garage after a call by his team.

“It’s frustrating but it’s one of those things.” Di Resta said.

“I sat in the garage and I saw the screens again. The engineers and stuff we’re like ‘no, we’ve got to go out on mediums, everyone else is doing it’. And I went ‘No, look at it, everyone’s putting umbrellas up, let’s try something different.” The Scott added.

Di Resta is hoping to score some points in tomorrow’s race, be it dry or wet.

“The car seems a lot stronger in the dry, a lot more comfortable in Q2. P8 we went through to Q3 in so that’s a bous. At the same point we need to work on our wet conditions because it’s a handful but at the same point tomorrow could be dry and we’ll try and score some points.”

Team principal Vijay Mallya acknowledge Di Resta’s decision to start on intermediate tyres. He was happy with the result even though his team lost out a chance to score their second pole position at this race.

“With Paul we judged this pretty much to perfection and for a while we were looking good for a front row start. But the rain eased up and he dropped down to fifth, which is still an excellent result.”