Paul di Resta - Photo Credit: Sahara Force India F1 Team
Force India today got both cars through to Q3 in qualifying for the Korean Grand Prix and Paul di Resta will start ninth, one place ahead of team-mate Adrian Sutil.
“We looked quite strong throughout the session, although we seemed to be very close on performance with the cars around us – so it was a tight session as well,” said Di Resta. “It's good to make Q3 and it puts me in a strong position tomorrow, especially starting from the clean side of the grid.
“For the race the important thing is to be aggressive with our strategy because there are some fast cars behind us, including a Mercedes, and we need to work hard to keep them at bay. That won't be easy because I expect the DRS zone to be quite effective here. So there's a lot of hard work ahead tomorrow, but we go into the race believing we can bring home some points.”
Sutil did not leave the garage at all during Q3, pointing out the need for him to save tyres for tomorrow’s race. “Considering the limited dry track time we had during practice, I think we can pleased with our performance level today,” said the German. “Getting both cars in the top ten is a good result and we can have a strong race from there.
“I took the decision to save tyres during Q3 and I believe it was the right thing to do. Having as many new sets for the race is an advantage – that's something we've already seen in lots of races this year. Starting from the dirty side of the track is not ideal, but there is not a very long run to the first corner so let's see how the start of the race unfolds.”
Deputy Team Principal Robert Fernley praised both drivers for their performance, and commented on their chances of a good result tomorrow.
“Given it was so wet yesterday, it was difficult to judge how competitive we were going into the qualifying session, but we were optimistic that Q3 was achievable for at least one of our cars,” he explained. “As it turned out both Adrian and Paul made it through to Q3 with some excellent laps getting the job done.
“For Q3 we decided to play the long game and save tyres for tomorrow. Adrian stayed in the garage, while Paul initially went out to try and have a go at Petrov for eighth, but aborted his run. This puts us in a better position in terms of tyres than the cars directly ahead of us.
We know we will have a fight on our hands to convert today's result into points, but we have all the strategy options available to us so we're well placed to do so.”
