Force India: Di Resta claims best result yet
2011 Singapore GP team review
Sixth and eighth was the team’s best two-car result since the 2009 Belgian Grand Prix.
The team tightened their grasp on sixth in the constructors championship and may even entertain thoughts of passing Renault for fifth.
With five Grands Prix remaining there’s 22 points between them and Force India have out-scored them 36-5 over the last five races.
| Adrian Sutil | Paul di Resta | |
| Qualifying position | 9 | 10 |
| Qualifying time comparison (None) | ||
| Race position | 8 | 6 |
| Laps | 60/61 | 61/61 |
| Pit stops | 2 | 2 |
Force India drivers’ lap times throughout the race (in seconds):
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | |
| Adrian Sutil | 126.155 | 117.932 | 117.094 | 117.274 | 117.373 | 116.931 | 116.606 | 117.148 | 117.375 | 118.976 | 124.623 | 140.234 | 117.494 | 119.286 | 116.236 | 116.584 | 116.245 | 116.567 | 116.3 | 116.45 | 116.246 | 116.78 | 117.215 | 116.555 | 116.54 | 118.117 | 116.699 | 117.209 | 134.59 | 163.983 | 123.333 | 120.703 | 145.885 | 118.314 | 119.203 | 116.295 | 117.438 | 115.496 | 115.21 | 115.3 | 114.843 | 114.61 | 114.96 | 115.071 | 114.564 | 114.942 | 115.321 | 115.16 | 115.284 | 114.996 | 116.104 | 116.175 | 116.165 | 116.573 | 117.238 | 117.148 | 117.4 | 117.969 | 119.084 | 120.364 | |
| Paul di Resta | 127.636 | 118.606 | 118.075 | 117.431 | 117.449 | 116.738 | 116.67 | 116.75 | 116.704 | 117.587 | 117.689 | 116.858 | 117.378 | 117.542 | 118.173 | 117.276 | 117.543 | 118.245 | 125.824 | 138.324 | 115.507 | 115.819 | 115.529 | 116.158 | 115.725 | 115.914 | 115.146 | 115.521 | 133.104 | 161.478 | 129.087 | 120.331 | 147.827 | 118.552 | 118.814 | 115.766 | 114.624 | 114.707 | 115.835 | 114.644 | 114.239 | 114.603 | 114.839 | 114.455 | 114.311 | 114.828 | 115.024 | 115.071 | 115.463 | 115.15 | 115.493 | 115.434 | 116.464 | 115.668 | 115.839 | 116.292 | 117.337 | 117.319 | 118.679 | 119.276 | 123.454 |
Adrian Sutil
| Start tyre | Super soft |
| Pit stop 1 | Soft 30.718s |
| Pit stop 2 | Soft 33.418s |
Sutil qualified ninth and held position as the race started. He switched to soft tyres at his first pit stop and his team mate shortly appeared behind him running the softer tyres.
He was made aware of Di Resta’s different strategy and let his team mate go without a fight on lap 26.
But that compromised him when the safety car came out three laps later. The pair pitted together and Sutil, who was second to arrive, lost time as he was held in his box as another car came past, and fell behind Nico Rosberg.
He ran behind Rosberg until the end, losing one place to Lewis Hamilton: “The final stint was quite difficult because I had to do about 30 laps on the soft tyres.
“I had Perez close behind me and then Massa was closing in fast on the final lap. Fortunately I had enough to hold on to eighth.”
Paul di Resta
Paul di Resta, Force India, Singapore, 2011
| Start tyre | Soft |
| Pit stop 1 | Super soft 30.704s |
| Pit stop 2 | Soft 29.764s |
An alternative tyre strategy helped Di Resta to his best career result so far.
He started on soft tyres and kept within range of Sutil, who was on super-softs. Sutil eased his path after Di Resta changed to super softs on lap 19.
His first stint on super softs was cut short by the safety car and he switched to soft tyres to run to the end of the race.
Hamilton took fifth place off him but sixth was still his best result so far.
Afterwards he said: “I don’t think the safety car really helped us because I still had a lot of life left in the super soft tyres in the middle of the race, but it didn’t really hurt us either.
“After that it was a case of managing my pace to Rosberg, looking after the tyres and bringing the car home. I was in free air for the final part of the race, which helped, and the pace was strong.
“It’s probably my best race of the season, but it’s the result of all the hard work behind the scenes. We came here with an upgrade package that has allowed us to gain performance in the race, gain tyre life, and we saw the benefits of that today.”
2011 Singapore Grand Prix
- Vettel and Button take Driver of the Weekend wins
- Rate the race result: 2011 Singapore Grand Prix
- Ferrari deny Massa told to cause Hamilton crash
- From Kovalainen’s fire to fireworks: your Singapore videos
- 2011 Singapore Grand Prix: complete race weekend review
- Vote for your Singapore GP driver of the weekend
- Red Bull: Vettel supreme as championship beckons
- McLaren: Another collision, another penalty for Hamilton
- Ferrari: Alonso wants to focus on 2012 in last races
- Force India: Di Resta claims best result yet
Image © Force India F1 Team
W-K (@w-k) said on 27th September 2011, 8:04
If I was a Ferrari boss and Mercedes doesn’t retire Schumi at the end of this season and promote Di Resta into that space, I would offer him Massa’s seat for next year.
Raveendhana (@raveendhana) said on 27th September 2011, 8:15
But DI resta is backed by mclaren, he is supposed to join mclaren is seasons to come i think but FI will not give away DI RESTA easily.
W-K (@w-k) said on 27th September 2011, 8:40
Paul Di Resta is a Mercedes man, he came to F1 from Mercedes DTM team.
Raveendhana (@raveendhana) said on 27th September 2011, 8:45
ya i was wrong it was mercedes
alexf1man (@alexf1man) said on 27th September 2011, 8:36
Well done to Paul for getting into the top 6, Singapore would’ve been his first point if he was racing in 2002.
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner) said on 27th September 2011, 21:19
Fantastic result for the team and congratulations to Paul. Really hope he keeps this up, his head seems very much in the right place and he won’t get ahead of himself.
Lucas Alexander Munro said on 3rd October 2011, 9:22
Correct me if I am wrong, but isn’t Di Resta the only rookie to have earned his way into F1 and not paid for his seat? Because Perez has Telmex, Maldonado has PDVSA, D’Ambrosio brought in a few Belgian sponsors and Ricciardo’s chance came through Red Bull paying HRT to run him. Don’t get me wrong, all of them are pretty talented, especcially Di Resta and Perez (And I would say Ricciardo because I met him once, his friend claimed him to be ‘the next Lewis Hamilton, but I need to see him in a Toro Rosso) but Di Resta really did earn his seat, and rightfully so, he is giving Sutil a real run for his money.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine) said on 3rd October 2011, 9:51
I don’t think you can crudely separate them into “deserving” drivers and “pay-drivers”.
Di Resta, Perez and Maldonado have support from sponsors Whyte & MacKay, Telmex and PDVSA respectively.
Does that mean they don’t have their places on merit? Di Resta is an F3 and DTM champion, Maldonado is a GP2 champion and Perez is a GP2 runner-up. And all are acquitting themselves pretty well this year.
I think they’ve all earned a chance to be in F1. I don’t think you can point to any of them and say “he’s only in F1 because of his sponsor”.
craig-o (@craig-o) said on 3rd October 2011, 10:11
Petrov is another example of a pay driver. Renault signed him in 2010 not just because of the money he would bring in, but his potential too. And he has delivered, and against Kubica too, which is impressive.
Pérez, Di Resta and in the last few races Maldonado have all been there or there abouts with their teammates. It’s a really good batch of drivers coming through GP2 and even series like DTM. I’ve been impressed on some occasions by all 3.
Dev (@dev) said on 3rd October 2011, 11:49
i guess Schumacher was a pay driver too, but that does not mean the driver has no talent or is inferior to any other driver on the track… if there is talent, it will shine… pay driver or no pay driver.