Paul di Resta celebrates birthday with Shanghai stunning show

Apr 22 2010 by Eric MacKinnon, West Lothian Courier

BATHGATE bullet Paul di Resta blew out the candles on his birthday cake then blew away former World Champions Fernando Alonso.

The Force India star celebrated his 24th birthday in Shanghai at the weekend and he bagged the perfect present when he posted the 15th-quickest time on a circuit he’d never laid eyes on before.

Di Resta left some of the sport’s biggest names including Ferrari ace Alonso and Rubens Barrichello trailing as he steered the supercar around in 26 laps where he was just six tenths slower than team-mate Adrian Sutil.

To mark his birthday di Resta was presented with a custom-made pair of Alpinestars racing boots that he also wore during the practice.

The bespoke, handmade boots were cut from white and blue leather, representing the traditional colours of Paul’s native Scotland, with a saltire to match.

At the top of the boots, the words ‘Happy Birthday’ in Chinese characters were printed, and as an extra-special twist a large tiger was appliqued onto the side, denoting Paul was born in the year of the tiger under the Chinese calendar.

He said: “I was really touched to get the boots from the team as both they and Alpinestars have given them a lot of thought and time to design and make.

“To drive an F1 car on my birthday is also one of the best presents I could get.

“As for today, it was a very difficult session as the conditions were quite tough out there. The track was green with little rubber to start with and the low temperatures and the hard tyre compound made grip levels very, very low.

“I still managed to learn a few things about the car and of course the circuit. It’s a tricky track with some blind corners and variety of speeds and it’s hard to get into an easy rhythm straight away.

“Unfortunately I flat-spotted one of the front tyres, which compromised how much I could get out of the last two runs.

“But we still got what we wanted out of the session and I have learned another track so, all in all, it was productive despite the conditions being less than ideal.”