Di Resta 12th as Sutil fails to progress through Q3
Qualifying for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix saw Sahara Force India's Paul Di Resta and Adrian Sutil qualify in 12th and 18th places respectively at the Yas Marina Circuit.
Paul Di Resta, VJM06-04, 12th: “I am pretty satisfied with P12, which puts us in a reasonable position for tomorrow. I’m feeling good in the car, which has worked well all weekend. For tomorrow I’m optimistic that we can be up there with a good chance of picking up some points. The car is responding well and I also think we are more suited to the race than qualifying. There’s a long race ahead of us, but we will work hard to put together a good strategy tonight and try to push our way forward in the race.”
Adrian Sutil, VJM06-03, 18th: “I’ve not been feeling comfortable with the car this weekend. The practice sessions have not been easy and I just can’t find a balance that is working for me. It started in second practice yesterday when we had the issue with the brakes and since then I’ve been struggling. We made some changes before qualifying, which were an improvement, but it was not enough to progress to Q2. So we are disappointed with P18, but it’s the result of things not coming together for us. It’s a long and tough race here, but I still look forward to it and will try my best to improve our performance.”
Robert Fernley, Deputy Team Principal: “It’s encouraging to see Paul up in P12 and only a tenth away from the top ten. He’s been happy with the car performance from the start of practice and has progressed with each run. We have a good race car, with consistent pace over long runs, which will hopefully allow us to join the fight for points. On the other side of the garage it has been quite a challenging weekend for Adrian. He’s not been comfortable with the car and, despite our best efforts, we’ve not found the right direction to give him a balance that gives him confidence. It will be an interesting race tomorrow and hopefully our strategy decisions tonight will allow us to move forward with both cars.”
