New chapter in Paul Di Resta’s crash course

PAUL Di Resta has admitted he faces “a long week” after holding his hands up to making another mistake.

Race marshalls assist Paul di Resta as he squeezes under a fence. Picture: Reuters

A fortnight ago in the Singapore Grand Prix, Di Resta ploughed his Force India into a wall when a high points finish was on the cards.

Two weeks on, and in the middle of the Korea Grand Prix, Di Resta spun out and slid sideways into a tyre barrier. The 26-year-old Scot has now failed to see the chequered flag in four successive races, and failed to score a point in six.

With his future with the team on the line, these are worrying times for Di Resta, who said: “It looks like I’ve upset somebody in the world.”

He added: “The car is very much on edge to get it to where it is. It took a mighty effort over a lap to get it to the performance of the cars we were racing. Unfortunately, it caught me out. I’ll hold my hands up, it’s me who has made the mistake and gone off. I apologise to the team.

“But the way we are running the car is massively different to the way we were running it before – on edge and pushing to get what we can out of it.”

At first glance, his incident appeared innocuous enough, with a suggestion it was something other than driver error. Di Resta was certainly perplexed, adding: “It was just a spin, but it didn’t slow up and hit the wall. It was odd the way the car spun one way, but then shifted the other, and I’ve watched the replay and I don’t see anything I’ve done wrong.

“It will be a long week, but when I get back in the car in Suzuka [for next Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix] I am sure I’ll be doing something slightly different to get more speed out of what we have.”