Force India: Di Resta accepts penalty

2011 Monaco GP team review

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Di Resta said his passing attempt on Alguersuari was “a bit too ambitious”.

Adrian SutilPaul di Resta
Qualifying position1514
Qualifying time comparison (Q2)1’16.121 (+0.003)1’16.118
Race position712
Laps77/7876/78
Pit stops23

Force India drivers’ lap times throughout the race (in seconds):

https://www.racefans.net/charts/2011drivercolours.csv

123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536373839404142434445464748495051525354555657585960616263646566676869707172737475767778
Adrian Sutil97.07783.80682.82383.00882.32982.31781.68581.81381.26481.781.81182.01781.63681.94882.17481.80981.70681.65981.5281.66381.7381.82781.40981.54982.00282.37581.66182.06881.81681.93182.07582.77284.099115.615105.85587.77992.635114.284.32983.47683.181.73181.27881.58781.24681.18881.47881.18280.99980.43180.48380.60580.49680.53280.33880.49580.32180.36880.4880.86281.83581.1681.44782.60884.5885.61784.67114.105113.094123.845123.53481.92479.70778.89478.92778.872
Paul di Resta95.51782.86282.43181.7581.73981.59881.42581.70582.03982.74382.74282.94181.12381.26582.22881.88781.6981.60381.826100.24384.42980.69282.69184.66181.81782.38496.14885.683.34882.81983.442125.19141.82391.99185.99184.651111.32685.54384.35384.57184.84283.00582.41383.08684.40282.3782.66181.76680.64681.65980.41480.46680.27681.83983.00682.85880.74680.94480.8180.44884.56980.8480.80381.34781.54481.33888.823121.782123.772123.48483.95479.61278.8478.72478.919

Adrian Sutil

The first safety car period fell like a dream for Sutil. Having stayed out until lap 34 on soft tyres he was able to make his pit stop under the safety car and hold on to fourth place.

His switch to super-soft tyres cost him little time, but by lap 60 he was starting to struggle and Kamui Kobayashi was putting him under pressure.

Kobayashi made a move at the Mirabeau on lap 64, knocked Sutil wide and took the place. Mark Webber demoted him a further place on the next lap.

Now badly struggling on his tyres, Sutil clipped the barrier at the exit of Tabac on lap 67, sparking a chain reaction collision behind him which led to the stoppage of the race.

He replaced his burst right-rear as the safety car period began before the race was stopped and went on to finish seventh for his first points since Australia.

Adrian Sutil 2011 form guide

Paul di Resta, Force India, Monaco, 2011

Paul di Resta

Di Resta out-qualified Sutil for the fifth time in six races, by the very slim margin of three thousandths of a second.

He passed Kamui Kobayashi at the start then pitted on lap 20 for a second set of super-soft tyres.

That left him behind Jaime Alguersuari: “After my first pit stop the team told me that to make the strategy work I needed to pass Alguersuari so I tried to overtake him at the hairpin.

“That’s when I made contact and damaged my front wing, which is why I had to make an early second stop. I have to hold my hands up for this accident because I was probably a bit too ambitious.

“It’s a shame because the car was working well and without this incident I think I could have scored some points.”

The penalty left him 20th. He picked of the Virgins and Lotuses for 15th, and was promoted three further places by retirements.

Paul di Resta 2011 form guide

2011 Monaco Grand Prix

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    Image © Force India F1 Team

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    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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    30 comments on “Force India: Di Resta accepts penalty”

    1. Hats off to Di Resta. Took his punishment like a man.

      1. He’s hardly going to argue with a friend of the family now is he?

        1. There was no argument to be had. He said himself the he was “too ambitious”.

          1. It was a racing incident, in which he damaged his own car – no penalty was needed but as I said it would be more of a surprise if he had openly disagreed with Allan about his penalty.

            It’s also worth noting that he collided twice in the hairpin, damaging his car in both cases – yet he was only punished once…

      2. He’s a nice guy and an incredible talent, he has done superbly so far.

      3. He did and that’s all we can ask of him.

    2. Good points is just what Adrian needed after the criticism he’s been receiving as of late. Thumbs up to Paul as well for taking responsibility for his incidents, a certain other Brit could learn from him ;)

    3. Adrian Sutil yet again shows he is a good driver around Monaco, if only he could translate this more consistently to other circuits. However he is now clear of his team-mate in the standings.

    4. what i dont understand is how people(bbc) and on this forum keep praising DIRESTA as if he is completely blowing away Sutil…which in my opinion is not the case.

      they are very evenly matched.in my opinion..HULK might be better than both of them..

      1. He’s 5-1 up in qualifying and 3-2 up in the races. That’s very good for a rookie up against a driver in his fifth season.

        1. I’d be looking to put him in a Mercedes. I wasn’t at all convinced by Hulkenberg’s overall performance against Barrichello, last season.

          1. Gotta agree. Although rubens had quite a strong year last year, he still isn’t the most formidable of teammates. I think the Hulk should get the 2nd Force India seat if DiResta leaves for a better team though.

        2. i certainly agree that he has outqualified sutil and the Average qualifying gap -0.873s..is quite impressive as i see it now

          but i am not convinced that he has done as outstanding a job as the bbc commentary would make one feel..also, i have got the feeling that whenever Sutil has done a better job..it has only got a cursory remark from them but DR gets almost 5-10 minutes of praise and “hype”

          in my opinion Perez is doing the best job among rookies and maybe we should wait a few more races to see how things pan out..

          1. and the Average qualifying gap -0.873s

            I wouldn’t read too much into that one – it’s inflated by Sutil’s time in Australia which was slow because of his spin.

            Obviously I don’t work for the BBC so I’m not that bothered what they think, though I can’t say I’ve noticed much in the way of ‘hype’ from them.

            1. There was much more hype in the first few races. Slightly less now, although when Brundle saw that Di Resta had beaten Sutil in qualifying in Monaco he started semi-shouting with excitement, which I thought was a little over the top given that it was for 14th and 15th places.

            2. TFLB: and only by 0.003 seconds :P

              I think it’s fair enough that the BBC give him a bit of hype, he is a new british driver after all.

    5. ok we have a graph with two lines both green :) running out of colour Keith?

      1. As I’ve said a million times before, they’re different shades and you can also tell them apart by hovering over them or by turning different lines on and off.

        They have to be consistent with the colours used in the other graphs which contain all the drivers, or you’d complain about that.

        1. It’s just hard to display 24 lines of different enough shade to make it clear to every one.

        2. consider my quandry..i m color blind.

          1. I’ve tried to take the needs of colour blind users into account by, as I said, allowing you to tell them apart by hovering over them or by turning different lines on and off.

            1. i can understand that.

              is there any way we can provide a zoom option in the graph?.it will make it easier as it will allow us to just trace the graphs for the concerned driver

        3. From a usability standpoint, I’d argue the opposite. If the main aim of these graphs is to allow people to compare team mates, and using different colours helps achieve that aim most effectively, then that’s what should be used.

          You could still achieve consistency by using the same 2 colours for each “team mate only” graph – one colour for the driver who finished ahead, the other for the one who came in behind.

          Consistency with the overall graphs (that show all drivers) doesn’t really matter IMO, since they are used within different contexts.

          Just my 2c, of course!

        4. jsw11984 (@jarred-walmsley)
          30th May 2011, 20:54

          Exactly, I can see 11/12 of the graphs clear as day as to who is who, the only one I have issues with is Ferrari, but it is hard to get considerdably different shades of red.

        5. lol… omg calm down, i grew up using graphs and plotting statistics, dont have to give me the lesson. Was only a joke really… i can see that they are different , just.. ;)

    6. Great to see Sutil single-handedly pull Force India passed Torro Rosso-Ferrari in the constructors’.

    7. A great result for Sutil, just what he needs considering everything else he has going on at the moment.

      Is that his best result since 2009?

    8. no andrew… he came 5 last season in sepang.

    9. Adrian does really good job in Monaco. About the punishment, perhaps hamilton could learn a thing or two with Di Resta

    Comments are closed.