F1: Paul Di Resta says car is Force to be reckoned with

BATHGATE'S Paul di Resta impressed on his first official outing as reserve and test driver for the Force India team, but the 23-year-old's performance was handicapped by heavy rain and showers which swept across the Jerez circuit in Spain.

"Yeah, it wasn't ideal but the car felt pretty good," said Di Resta, who finished eighth quickest, immediately behind the team's No.1 driver Adrian Sutil and the Mercedes of sixth-fastest man Michael Schumacher.

"We all came to Spain expecting sunshine and warmth, instead we got cold and rain. The objective was to get as much running as possible and we managed over 300km, which was a great effort, particularly given the weather."

Di Resta quickly showed his pace by lapping the damp 2.751-miles track in 1min 33secs.

The Scot continued to improve and was fifth-fastest before he spun his car 180-degrees after being caught out by a sudden downpour. But, after returning to the garage and then completing another lap to check the car's systems, Di Resta went out and posted his fastest lap, a 1:25.088.

"Everything was working well," he continued.

"We were testing and evaluating a number of different aspects of the car; we achieved what we set out to achieve. I could get an impression of the car and it seems stable and good all round, a genuine improvement on the one I drove last year."

Di Resta completed 74 laps during the day, much of which was spent gathering data on the car when it was running with heavier fuel loads than the other cars on the track. Ironically, shortly after Di Resta had handed the car over to his German team-mate Sutil midway through the afternoon, the sun came out and the circuit dried. While Sutil eventually managed to lap just 0.816 faster than the Scot, it was Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel who topped the timesheets with a best time of 1:22.593, 0.424 ahead of Lewis Hamilton's McLaren, who in turn was 0.187 quicker than Felipe Massa's Ferrari.