Paul Di Resta earned the best result thus far of his rookie season when he crossed the line in Singapore in a superb sixth place. His Force India was beaten only by two Red Bulls, two McLarens and a Ferrari – and four World Champions.
It was an excellent result, one that resulted from great driving from Paul and a superb effort from the team. What made it even more impressive was that Paul had not driven in Singapore, and lost priceless track time with problems on Friday.
The key to Force India’s race was qualifying. Adrian Sutil and Paul both made it through to Q3, but the team realised they would not have the pace to better ninth and 10th places in that final session. So in order to preserve the supersoft tyres, all of which had already been used – and also leave the drivers with a choice of which compound to start on – the team kept both drivers in the garage.
“It wouldn’t have mattered because we didn’t have enough performance to beat Mercedes over a lap,” says Paul. “They were a second quicker than us. So why go out and waste your opportunities in the race?”
As at Monza, it was decided to split the strategies, with Adrian starting on the supersoft or option, and Paul on the soft or prime. The target for Paul was to run a long first stint and then get to the flag with two stops.
To make it work he also had to have a good start and a strong first lap, given that he had quick guys behind him who went to the grid on the supersoft tyre.
Everything went to plan as he maintained his 10th place and ran behind Adrian in the opening laps.
As drivers in front began to pit after reaching the end of the useful life of their supersofts, Paul moved up the order. Indeed his pace was such that most of those who stopped early fell behind him.
“I wasn’t aware of where I was in the race, I was just fighting to maximise our track position. It was the strategy we took, and that’s what gave us track position.
“It was quite difficult. There was a point where we could have stopped and come out in front of a couple of cars, but we chose to carry on so we could extend the supersoft run.”
On lap 13 Paul reached the dizzy heights of third place, but when leaders Vettel and Button stopped, they were able to come out still ahead. Nevertheless he held onto third for six memorable laps, with Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber snapping at his heels.
“I think because we were reasonably quick after they made the first pit stop we were still in front of them. They had quite a bit of pace compared to me, because they had fresh tyres. I wasn’t going to compromise my own speed and my own track position. And I think that was the key, being able to do that. And when we were in free air, we were very strong.”
Alonso and Webber went past just as Paul finally pitted on lap 19. He emerged in eighth place, having gained two spots from the Massa/Hamilton collision.
Paul then began banging in some great lap times on his supersofts. He gained two more places when the Mercedes drivers made early second stops, and another when Adrian – now on the harder tyre – let him past.
The intention was to extend that stint to around lap 35, but when the safety car came out, the plan changed. Paul was one of the first to dive into the pits, emerging on the soft prime tyre: “It probably hindered us more than anything, because we were still going very strongly on the supersoft.”
Helped by the initial slow running behind the safety car extending the life of the tyres, he was subsequently able to run all the way to the flag without another stop. Initially he was fifth, although he had to cede a spot to the recovering Hamilton. He then ran in sixth to the flag, staying safely clear of Rosberg’s Mercedes.
“We changed onto the prime and we could manage the pace against Rosberg. There was plenty left, it was just a matter of bringing the car home, keeping the tyres in order and saving fuel just to be on the safe side.”
This was Paul’s third top eight finish in four races, and the fifth in a row for the team.
“The big thing was we came with an upgrade package that enabled us to gain performance in the race, and gain tyre life. What it said on the tin, it did. After missing Friday, no high fuel runs, going into the race completely unknown, it’s a big credit to the team, and we’ve worked very hard to try and achieve that.
“We’re having good results on all the weekends and all different downforce levels. We can be hopeful that it will carry on at Suzuka.”