Valencia: Force India's new signing Paul di Resta excelled on day two of the winter testing programme at the Valencia permanent circuit, competing more than 100 laps and posting the third best time of the day at the 3.92km Spanish track.
His fastest lap of 1:13.844 was behind Ferrari's Fernando Alonso (1:13.307) and current world champion Sebastian Vettel (1:13.614) of Red Bull.
India's Narain Karthikeyan, who made a return to Formula One circuit after signing with HRT, timed 1:17.769 to finish 12th.
Di Resta contributed to an extremely productive day as he gathered more information on the performance of the three Pirelli tyre compounds available this week.
"Another good day of testing for the team, gathering lots of information for the guys to work on as we prepare for the debut of the VJM04 next week. We're now understanding a lot more about the performance of the Pirellis and the differences between the compounds, particularly with regards to long and shorter runs and different fuel loads," Di Resta said.
"At this stage we're not going for times, just trying to get representative data to work on. I'm feeling good and well integrated into the team and my new role, there's a really positive atmosphere, which will set us up extremely well for next week when the new car testing programme starts," the Scot added.
Circuit engineering director, Dominic Harlow, said the day's programme was intended to compare the various tyre compounds' performance with the first day's as the track improved.
"During the course of the session the circuit should have reached something approaching race conditions in terms of the laps run on it, so it's interesting data. It was a productive day and we also worked on some systems development for the VJM04. Adrian (Sutil) will be in the car tomorrow for the final day here," Harlow said.
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