Paul Di Resta is encouraged by the performance of the Force India so far in Singapore after both cars finished inside the top ten in Friday Practice. Di Resta was marginally the quicker of the two drivers this evening and believes they can maintain their strong form for the rest of the weekend.
“I think you always need time to get up to speed on any street circuit so it was useful to have some trouble-free sessions and get the laps under my belt. The balance we have with the car is already looking good, but there’s always room to improve things overnight. So I think we’re in decent shape and the data collected should leave us well prepared for Sunday’s race.”
Teammate Nico Hulkenberg agrees that the VJM05 is competitive around the Marina Bay circuit, not just on a single lap, but also over a race distance.
“It’s been a positive Friday overall and I think we are looking competitive here. The rain at the start of the first session didn’t really have an impact on us and we still had plenty of time to get through the programme. I think in terms of race preparation we can be happy because we focussed on long runs and have lots of information going into tomorrow.”
Chief Engineer Jakob Andreasen was particularly happy with the car’s long run pace and is now turning his attention to improving for qualifying.
“It has been a typical Friday with all our usual systems checks and procedures. We also made sure to get both cars doing long runs on both tyre compounds, which will hopefully pay dividends on Sunday night. The general balance of the car was good right from the first few runs and our pace looks competitive on low and high fuel. So a very productive day, the drivers seem happy and we have lots of data to study in order to improve further ahead of qualifying.”
