Force India’s Di Resta 11th in Canadian GP qualifier

June 12th, 2011 - 6:16 pm ICT by IANS  

Montreal, June 12 (IANS) Force India’s Paul di Resta narrowly missed out on a top-10 position on the starting grid while Adrian Sutil had to settle for 14th place in the Canadian Grand Prix qualifier at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel stormed to pole Saturday for six out of seven times in one of the closest qualifying sessions this season.

Di Resta, who will start 11th in the grid, was happy with his performance.

“We were very close to making it through to Q3 today, but in the end we had to settle for P11,” said di Resta, who is competing in his first Canadian Grand Prix this weekend.

“Maybe the tyre strategy we opted for was not optimal for qualifying, but I’ve managed to save a set of new options for the race so hopefully that will help us tomorrow. I also lost a couple of tenths at the second chicane on my final lap and without this I could maybe have squeezed into Q3. But to be honest there wasn’t much more to come.”

Sutil said it hasn’t been the easiest of weekends for him so far.

“I was still hoping for a bit more from the qualifying session,” said the German.

“Unfortunately I made a mistake in the hairpin on my last lap. I hit a bump under braking which caused the rear tyres to lock and I slid wide.

Deputy Team Principal Robert Fernley was hopeful of a good result in the race. “Overall I think we can be pleased with our showing today which leaves us well place to bring home a strong result tomorrow.”

“The high-speed layout of this track always seems to suit our cars and once again this year we’ve been running in or close to the top 10 in most of the sessions,” he said.

“Paul has done a good job of learning the track and has steadily built up his pace throughout practice. He only narrowly missed out on making it through to Q3, which is a great effort considering this is his first visit here.”

“Adrian has done well to recover from a lack of running following his problems yesterday, although he lost a few tenths on his final lap, without which he could have been alongside Paul.”

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