Paul di Resta completed 118 laps of the Circuit de Catalunya on Force India‘s second day of the final pre-season test session in Barcelona.
The Scot conducted a simulation of the a weekend, complete with live F1 pit stops, something Di Resta had not yet experienced in his career.
“A reasonable day of running for us today and good reliability and clear weather meant we could get through all of our programme,” said the 24-year-old, who finished the day as the sixth fastest driver.
“In the morning I worked through the qualifying sims and in the afternoon it was onto the race runs,” he added. “I’ve done pit stops before in practice last year but trying them in race conditions was a new experience. However they were similar in length to what I’ve experienced in the DTM over the past four years so I think I dealt with them OK.
“I’ll have a break tomorrow while Adrian takes over the car to test some new aero upgrades we’re running for the first time. I’ll get my chance to run them on Friday and look forward to seeing how much time they will give.”
Force India circuit engineering director Dominic Harlow was pleased with the amount of running that the team had managed. “In a productive outing [di Resta] covered over 500km, running our standard Saturday practice and qualifying programmes before lunch and then moving to a full race simulation in the afternoon,” he explained. “We also had our full race crew here today to give them some live pit stop practice.
“Reliability was good again, which allowed us to cover our primary objectives for today. Paul takes a break tomorrow and Adrian will be in the car for the full day.”
