Bathgate Bullet scores point on blistering F1 debut

Mar 31 2011 by Eric MacKinnon, West Lothian Courier

PAUL DI RESTA announced his Formula One arrival in style as he marked his debut race with a point.

The Bathgate Bullet won what he dubbed ‘a mega result’ on his F1 debut in the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne by steering home in 12th place — one place behind team-mate Adrian Sutil.

But following the disqualification of the two Sauber-Ferraris driven by Sergio Perez and Kamui Kobayashi a few hours later, both Force India cars were promoted to ninth and 10th, meaning the new boy in the F1 paddock had scored his first Formula One World Championship point on his first race.

“Scoring a world championship point on my race debut is fantastic,” beamed di Resta.

“We had quite a good start and fight with Kobayashi, but that allowed one of the Toro Rosso’s past and from there we lost a bit of momentum.

“Our pace was just a little bit behind today but, hopefully, by Malaysia we will be able to understand why and, when the upgrades come, perform a bit better.

“Adrian and I were on different strategies and we had to fuel conserve toward the end that’s why the gap opened up.

“I am going into Malaysia to try to do a better job than I did here today, but overall I am relatively happy.

“If the news is true then this is a mega result for me and the team.

“It is exactly what we set out to achieve and I’m delighted to have scored my first point in my debut race.

“To score a world championship point in my first grand prix is a great achievement, both for me and the team.

“Hopefully, this will be the first of many, but it’s fantastic to know the records show I’ve already scored a world championship point.”

Di Resta, who started his first F1 race with Force India from 14th on the grid, two places ahead of his more experienced team-mate Adrian Sutil, produced a mature and skilful drive around the 58 laps of the tight and demanding Albert Park street circuit in downtown Melbourne.

He showed a blistering race pace to move past a series of cars and avoided a collision which ultimately forced the retirement of seven-times world champ Michael Schumacher’s Mercedes, to move up to tenth.

From there the 2010 DTM champ swapped places with Sutil throughout the race before different fuel strategies meant the German eased ahead.

And di Resta reveals he feels right at home in the world of Formula One.

He revealed: “It was quite good. I made a reasonable start, was up to 10th and quicker than Kobayashi at the beginning.

“But he went a bit defensive and too extreme with his blocking.

“The important thing for me was to get round and finish my first race. I wasn’t too far away from my team-mate Adrian Sutil at the end.

“It’s the first one out of the way, and we’re definitely more competitive than we thought we were going into this race.”

Di Resta is now keen to build on the impressive foundations of his first race and stay ahead of team mate Sutil too.

He added: “I sat out Friday morning free practice to allow our test driver Nico (Hulkenberg) time in the race car so given the fact I missed one complete session, it’s been quite a big job to stay in front.

“I managed to qualify in front of Adrian, and I was in front of him — and stayed in front — at the start of the race as well. I think what I need to work on is my own performance in qualifying, learning how the track improves and how it is at low fuel and stay in front of him.

“It’s just about being on the top all the time and using your engineer to predict what the car is going to be like going into a qualifying session, what the track is going to be like and how it evolves.”

The Bathgate Bullet will be back on the F1 starting grid in Sepang for the Malaysian Grand Prix on April 10 where he hopes to add to the point he scored last week which also saw him enter the record books as the 59th driver in Grand Prix history to score a point in his first race.