Bathgate’s Paul Di Resta will start fifth on the grid for the latest round of the German Touring Car Championship at Zandvoort in Holland. And the 22-year-old Scot believes his Mercedes is capable of clinching his first win of the season.
“We’ve definitely made a lot of progress with the car since the last round,” Di Resta, currently tied sixth in the championship, just six points behind the Audi of defending champ Timo Scheider, said today.
“I was unfortunate to miss out on the final shoot-out for the final four places on the grid, but I know our time in qualifying was far quicker than that posted by Oliver (Jarvis) who actually ended up with pole position.
“That in itself makes the qualfying session look a bit silly in that the car which is starting fifth was actually faster than the polesitter. However, that’s the way the rules are and now I just have to make sure we do the business in the race.”
Di Resta’s fastest time in the penultimate qualifying session was 1min 31.751secs. But though not fast enough to make the final shoot-out, it ended up being 0.215s faster than the one-year-old Audi driven by Jarvis.
The Englishman, who starts ahead of Di Resta’s Merecdes team-mates Gary Paffett and Bruno Spengler, spared Audi’s blushes after the German manufacturer’s highest-placed 2009-spec A4 could only qualify eighth. Scheider lines up a distant 11th.
JM