Paul di Resta, Force India, Hungaroring, 2011

Force India: Di Resta claims best result so far

2011 Hungarian GP team review

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Paul di Resta scored the best result of his career so far in Hungary with seventh place.

Adrian Sutil Paul di Resta
Qualifying position 8 11
Qualifying time comparison (Q2) 1’22.000 (-0.256) 1’22.256
Race position 14 7
Laps 68/70 69/70
Pit stops 4 3

Force India drivers’ lap times throughout the race (in seconds):

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/charts/2011drivercolours.csv

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 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70
Adrian Sutil 129.049 114.999 110.33 107.104 106.761 106.745 105.934 104.687 104.392 103.687 103.624 105.595 119.726 94.023 93.114 92.02 93.277 90.92 91.137 91.159 91.366 90.798 90.094 91.4 91.949 92.502 108.746 88.367 88.181 89.206 90.768 88.408 88.729 88.692 88.325 88.109 88.512 88.664 89.924 88.472 88.615 89.542 88.307 88.478 89.013 95.857 92.028 92.008 102.062 104.783 113.169 94.201 97.616 110.538 91.794 89.799 88.857 89.984 90.042 91.021 86.305 86.011 86.07 86.062 89.629 85.579 86.318 86.478
Paul di Resta 121.896 110.619 108.701 106.982 105.329 104.301 104.08 103.553 102.683 101.961 103.87 118.732 95.783 92.482 91.87 90.951 90.706 90.444 90.216 90.287 90.098 89.979 90.747 90.231 90.676 90.636 92.612 107.555 89.292 87.611 88.011 88.523 88.796 88.796 88.8 88.641 88.933 89.039 89.525 89.436 89.706 91.426 107.841 86.662 87.744 97.504 93.294 89.171 96.059 103.627 95.843 89.906 88.438 89.468 87.652 89.078 89.141 88.976 87.361 87.282 87.413 87.409 86.91 86.717 85.935 86.395 86.611 86.213 90.057

Adrian Sutil

Sutil carried his momentum from Germany and made his third appearance in Q3, splitting the Mercedes for eighth.

But he went off at the chicane on the first lap, falling to 20th place. “I locked up the rear into the chicane,” he said.

“I was right behind Paul and to avoid an accident I had to go off the track and lost a lot of positions.”

He fought back quickly, passing Sergio Perez, Nick Heidfeld and Timo Glock on successive laps.

But his recovery stalled when he joined the ten drivers who pitted for intermediates during the late shower, and ended the race 14th.

Adrian Sutil 2011 form guide

Paul di Resta, Force India, Hungaroring, 2011
Paul di Resta, Force India, Hungaroring, 2011

Paul di Resta

Di Resta missed out on a place in the final ten by a tenth of a second, starting 11th.

He stayed out of trouble at the start and inherited places from his team mate and Perez, who both went off.

Di Resta closed on Michael Schumacher during the damp stint at the start of the race, then jumped in front of him during the first pit stops.

After two stints on super-soft tyres he switched to softs for his final stint. He briefly fell to 12th and was embroiled a scrap with Sebastien Buemi which he came out of on top.

He then set about passing Kamui Kobayashi, who was struggling for grip in his Sauber. That done, Di Resta had only to safeguard himself from the attentions of Buemi over the final laps to claim seventh place.

He said: “Finishing seventh is the best way to respond after a series of races where, for various reasons, we didn?óÔé¼Ôäót get the results that were possible.

“So it?óÔé¼Ôäós nice to go into the summer break with a smile on my face having scored points that are so important for our position in the championship.”

Paul di Resta 2011 form guide

2011 Hungarian Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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30 comments on “Force India: Di Resta claims best result so far”

  1. Dev
    1st August 2011, 15:57

    VJM04 has been a surprise package, with exodus of key staff members one thought that team would struggle get in q3 & would not be able to beat the likes of Suaber, Williams & Toro Rosso. but they seem to have made a big step on the car.

    di Resta does have speed, but he needs get more results like this to be noticed by top teams. he was unlucky in last few races… i hope he can out score Sutil in the second half of the season.

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      Adam Tate (@adam-tate)
      2nd August 2011, 0:20

      Force India really have stepped up. They were languishing for awhile, and now they are ahead of Renault!! I love the fluidity of this season.

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    Ben Needham (@ben-n)
    1st August 2011, 15:57

    Well done Paul di Resta! A good, solid drive with no mistakes. Hopefully he can continue in this form in Spa where the Force India’s tend to be very good!

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      Fixy (@)
      1st August 2011, 17:02

      Finally he showed that without crashing into others he can be very competitive.

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    Eggry (@eggry)
    1st August 2011, 16:09

    VJM04 became quite good car now. They’ve struggled the first part of the season but the rest is quite promising. It’s opposite to last year but I think this year is much better.

  4. Marco
    1st August 2011, 16:12

    I am sure Sutil will try to bounce back at a track, where he did very well in the past, Spa Francorchamps…

    1. Chris
      1st August 2011, 18:20

      Like in 2009?

      1. Marco
        1st August 2011, 18:31

        No, like in 2008 and 2010… Both his best races of those years…

        1. Chris
          1st August 2011, 18:56

          I was being a bit sarcastic.

          I think Monaco 08 and Sepang ’10 were better persoanally.

          1. Marco
            1st August 2011, 19:31

            At Spa Liuzzi was 1,7 seconds per lap slower then Sutil… They were both much closer together at Sepang…

  5. laird18
    1st August 2011, 16:16

    Di Resta once again showing remarkable speed in wet conditions.

    In Canada he shot up to 5th and challenged for 4th. In the UK he ran 7th, keeping pace with Button and the front runners. And once again in the wet opening stages at Hungary he was able to keep pace with Webber and pull away from Kobayashi (and the other mid-field drivers) at over a second per lap! When it rained again towards the end he gained advantage once more – overtaking Buemi and Koboyashi, and pulling away for a great points finish! Very happy for him – a well deserved result.

  6. laird18
    1st August 2011, 16:26

    Also, does anyone else think the lack of coverage of the mid-field — especially on the first lap(s) — is very disappointing. It’s a shame that we never saw, and probably will never see, all the incidents that went on in Turn 7, with Sutil, Perez and several others going off. Same thing last week where we never saw how Heidfeld went in to the back of Di Resta.

    Also, a slight correction to Keith’s article. He says that Di Resta inherited positions because Sutil and Perez went off. Di Resta was already ahead of both of them going in to the first corner. He would also have got past Webber, and possibly both Ferraris, but got bogged down by Massa on the exit of turn 1.

    1. laird18
      1st August 2011, 16:30

      We also never got to see Di Resta’s crucial passes on Buemi and Koboyashi, of course. I know it’s not possible for all of these to be shown during the race, but it would be good if FIA released more footage afterwards. It would be great if the BBC Forum could show “other action we missed”, and get reaction from Brundle, Coulthard etc, rather than just the same shots over and over!

      1. Rob2
        1st August 2011, 16:35

        Yeah so they can over hype Di resta some more…

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      bosyber (@bosyber)
      1st August 2011, 22:39

      Definitely, usually we can see something of the starts by the head of the field, but the busy midfield only typically gets a view in the background of a pseudo-fight ahead.

    3. Simon
      2nd August 2011, 23:43

      I agree about the coverage, but I do think that (first lap aside) this race was a bit of an improvement over some of the recent ones.

      I actually wish it was possible after the race to watch another cut of it with different commentators concentrating just on the midfield runners – although I already listen to the BBC Radio commentary after I’ve watched it live with the Brundle and Coulthard commentary so that might just send into uncomfortable realms of obsession!

  7. Dev
    1st August 2011, 16:59

    There is good chance that di Resta might make to the podium at Spa…

    1. Marco
      1st August 2011, 17:14

      Very unlikely…

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      vickyy (@vickyy)
      1st August 2011, 17:22

      Yeah, very unlikely keeping the fact that top 3 teams are way ahead of mid-field.

  8. Scuderia Britalia Racing - Lucas "Mr. Veloce" - Yours With Wings
    1st August 2011, 19:45

    I am really desperate for Paul to outscore Adrian this year, what does Paul need to do in the upcoming races to outscore Adrian? I would also really like to see Nico Hulkenberg in Adrian’s seat next year alongside Paul. Either that or in Paul’s seat if Paul decides to leave.

    1. TFLB
      1st August 2011, 22:14

      So what have you got against Sutil?

      1. Lucas - Mr. Veloce of Britalia - Yours With Wings
        3rd August 2011, 20:24

        To be honest, nothing but he seems to only really have one good race. Plus he is so highly rated that you would have thought that he’d have moved on now.

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      David-A (@david-a)
      3rd August 2011, 5:25

      I would like to see him outscore Adrian too. But credit to Sutil for being ahead so far.

  9. Sumant
    1st August 2011, 21:19

    From the looks of it Force India appears to be the 4th best car on the grid during race day. I pray both the drivers continue the form and get lots of points in spa…

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      bosyber (@bosyber)
      1st August 2011, 22:43

      At the moment at least, the seem to edge out Sauber a bit, STR depends on its drivers making good, and Renault is at the back of that group at the moment. Mercedes indeed only ahead in Qualifying but not the race any more.

      The fact that Lotus seems to be able to get closer to the midfield (even if it is Williams, who seem to be falling back due to unreliability and strategy issues), and that the midfield closes up on the “Best of the rest” is good to see. Pity there’s about a second gap to the top from there.

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    stewy33 (@stewy33)
    1st August 2011, 22:09

    I would really like to see both VJM04′s in the points at Spa at the end of the month. I still believe the podium is out of reach, but maybe we can get an inspired drive like we saw out of Giancarlo Fisichella back in 2009 in the VJM02.

  11. Profile Photo

    JamieFranklinF1 (@jamiefranklinf1)
    1st August 2011, 23:10

    Spa is definitely a positive for Force India. After two “best of the rest” results in Nurburgring and Hungary, it does show that they have a quick race day car and a relatively good car in quali.

    With Hungary being a show of good downforce, plus the Mercedes engine, I think we may see Force India get a double points finish in Spa. Possibly Monza too.

  12. F1 98
    2nd August 2011, 8:09

    Who the better rookie di resta or perez who win rookie of the year.

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      AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
      2nd August 2011, 13:40

      They’re both level on 8 points (I think) at the moment. We will see at the end of the season.

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    AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
    2nd August 2011, 13:41

    A good race for Di Resta, he did well to keep calm while avoiding Hamilton, a very mature response to boot.

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