di Resta and Liuzzi complete morning session for Force India
Paul di Resta made his Grand Prix event debut with Force India in the opening practice session for the Australian Grand Prix. The 23-year-old Scot made a solid start, setting the 11th quickest time around the 5.303km Albert Park circuit.Tonio Liuzzi also put the VJM03 through its paces as Adrian Sutil sat out the first session.
Tonio worked through his scheduled programme of baseline runs and work with the harder tyre compounds, completing 18 laps.
The session was interrupted by two red flag periods, bizarrely caused by the same driver – Kamui Kobayashi – within minutes of each other. Despite interrupting both Paul and Tonio’s runs the team was able to get all its planned work done and now looks forward to the second practice. Adrian will return to his regular seat.
After his first run in the VJM03 around Albert Park, Paul di Resta said: ‘I was pretty nervous going into the session, after all Albert Park is one of the most difficult tracks on the calendar. It’s half street, half track so I had to build the programme from the bottom to the top. I had to feel comfortable in the car, particularly as I’ve not had the chance to drive it in the dry after the wet testing we had over the winter. It was something new and once the track rubbered in I was able to push myself beyond my comfortable limits. I am eager to get back in the car soon. In Melbourne there’s not much margin for error and that was the downfall as I had to be careful in some sectors as the walls get pretty close here. But the main job is to get the mileage and learn the track but most importantly to try and build a base for the drivers in the race with the optimum set-up. We tried a few bits and pieces on the car and went forward, it’s a good starting block for both me and I hope the team this weekend.’
Source: Force India
