101 laps for Paul, 2nd fastest time behind Kimi at Jerez

Paul completed 101

laps on Tuesday to clock the second fastest time behind Kimi Raikkonen said : “It was a good start to our winter test programme with 101 laps completed, which allowed us to get through all our objectives and a bit more.” With 447 kms under his belt in the new car Paul fastest lap was 1:19.772.

The 25-year old, who performed well as a rookie last year for the Silverstone based team will have Nico Hulkenberg, who replaced Adrian Sutil, as the second driver. Jules Bianchi will be reserve driver, who is assured of a drive at least on 9 Fridays this season.

Sahara Force India’s winter testing programme got underway on Tuesday as the team made the most of warm and sunny weather conditions in Jerez, Spain. The team started systems checks, data collection and set-up work.

“The baseline balance felt pretty good and the car performed consistently over the longer runs, which was useful for collecting the data we need. So I think we can be positive and heading into the next three days will be interesting as we have more test items to evaluate. On a personal level it’s also nice to spend such a busy day in the car to shake off the rust and assess my fitness level,” said Paul di Resta.

“It is an ideal way to begin our week as we compelted over 100 laps,” said team’s Technical Director Andrew Green. “We ran on the new 2012-spec hard and medium Pirelli tyre compounds throughout, which will help give us some consistency when analysing the data tonight. As usual, Paul’s feedback was excellent and we’re starting to get a good idea of the set-up direction we should take for the coming days. We will also continue with more of the work we started today and try to get as many miles on the car as possible.”