Motorsport: Barcelona beckons for on-form Paul

Sep 17 2009 by Eric MacKinnon, West Lothian Courier

PAUL DI RESTA roared to victory at Brands Hatch in his last DTM outing and now the Bathgate ace reckons he is primed and ready to clinch a second-successive podium at Barcelona on Sunday writes Eric Mackinnon.

Di Resta was at the very top of his form last week when he left his rivals trailing in his wake to the take the chequered flag at British circuit Brands Hatch, driving home a dominant lights-to-flag victory for Mercedes-Benz.

It was the 23-year-old’s first win of the season and the third victory in his DTM career and the West Lothian speedster reckons he has plenty more podiums in his locker this season.

He said: “It felt good right from the first lap and went on and we never went off it really.

“It was great to get my first win of the season under my belt and it was especially pleasing that it came at Brands Hatch.

“A lot of my family and friends were there watching from the stands and the win also helped the team put a lot of doubts we’ve had over the year behind us.

“Now we can concentrate on scoring as many points as possible.”

Di Resta was thrilled to be back on the top step of the podium in a frustrating season where he expected to be pushing for the title. The youngster steered home to six podium finishes in a row last season but he has been made to wait for a podium place this time around.

He admitted: “Of course I am thinking I should be on the podium. I don’t think any driver should think any differently.

“I certainly don’t. I came off last year with six podiums in six races then I haven’t had one in six races, but you get difficult years in motor racing. This has been a difficult season with a lot of misfortune.

“We’ve had a lot of different problems but hopefully they are behind us now and I will be on the podium more often.”

Barcelona is the next stop for Di Resta and his AMG Mercedes C-Class and the Bathgate Bullet is hoping for a repeat of 2008 when he took the chequered flag following a stunning drive over 58 laps and finished 4.531sec ahead of Audi rival Timo Scheider.

He added: “We are in Barcelona on Sunday which is the track where I won last year and we are traditionally very strong so we are looking for more of the same.

“We are quite optimistic ahead of the race but we have a bit of a weight handicap after we gained 10 kilos which may slow us down a little bit.”