Career best finish for Di Resta at Singapore
Sahara Force India delivered one of its strongest performances of the year as Paul Di Resta raced to a brilliant fourth place in the Singapore Grand Prix. Team-mate Nico Hulkenberg missed out on points finishing P14.
Paul Di Resta, VJM05/02, 4th:
Tyre strategy: Used super-soft, new soft, new soft
“Fourth place is a great team result and my best day in Formula One so far. We qualified well, raced hard and took advantage of a few retirements, but in the final stint we certainly showed that we had great pace. I don’t think the safety car really impacted on my race too much and I was able to make clean restarts each time and hold my position. I was very close to Alonso in the closing stages, but was just missing the pace to really challenge him for the podium. This result is just what we needed for our fight in the championship and I want to say a massive ‘thank you’ to the boys in the garage who put in a huge effort, as always.”
Nico Hulkenberg, VJM05/03, 14th:
Tyre strategy: New soft, new super-soft, new soft, used super-soft
“It was a pretty rough race for me. The strategy we chose by starting on the soft tyres could have paid off, but I was stuck behind Kimi and Michael early on and couldn’t really show the true pace of the car. The timing of the safety cars was not ideal and the second one really hurt my race. So overall things have not really fallen into place for me this weekend, but there are a lot of positives to take with the pace of the car and the result for Paul.”
Dr Vijay Mallya, Team Principal & Managing Director:
“A superb day for the team and especially for Paul who should be very proud of his performance. It was a very mature drive and he made the most of the great pace we had in the car. The safety car worked out well for him and for a while we were even thinking a podium might be possible as Paul chased Alonso in the closing stages. It’s a credit to the team that we were just a few seconds away from the podium and able to match the race pace of Ferrari. The 12 points give us a boost in the championship, lifting us 21 clear of Williams and closing the gap on Sauber ahead. I’m disappointed things did not work out for Nico because we had a quick car today and should have come away with more points. The safety car hurt his race badly and there was no way to recover. ”
