Paul di Resta called his seventh place at the Hungarian Grand Prix "massive" as he achieved the best result of his Formula One career so far.
Di Resta started in 11th place but a strong start in wet conditions allowed him to climb up to ninth place before Michael Schumacher retired and a better strategy than Nico Rosberg elevated him to seventh. Di Resta said that after the frustrations of the last three races he was pleased to be able to get the result that the car's potential allowed.
"It's a massive thing for me," Di Resta told the BBC." The last three races have been way out of my control, but there were definitely points up for grabs in all of them and yesterday we didn't get the best qualifying, we didn't quite hook the car up on the supersofts but we knew we had a good balance in the dry had it come.
"We lost a little bit out to strategy, probably the middle stint wasn't as good as it should have been, but at the end when the tricky conditions came I was able to fight my way back through. We were definitely quicker than the guys behind and it was just about bringing the car home and making sure there was enough fuel on board... We're only out there to win as a team and given what Adrian scored at the Nurburgring I think it was important that we finished seventh, closed the gap to Sauber and we're fighting and that's the main thing."
Di Resta was involved in a pivotal moment in the race when Lewis Hamilton spun and then forced him off the track as he recovered - earning the McLaren driver a drive-through penalty that scuppered any chances of a podium finish. Di Resta said he had been caught out by having to go on to the grass, but that the decision to penalise Hamilton was a tough one to make because it didn't affect the outcome of his race.
"Fortunately I saw him quite early, I saw before I entered the chicane [that] he had a bit of a moment and just as I came out of the chicane I was a bit surprised, but at the same time there was time to take action on it and I think Lewis was leading the race at that point so I can fully understand what he was trying to do. But there are no harsh feelings; I spoke to Lewis about it and he just said that he didn't see me, but if it had cost us a lot of points it would have been a hard one.
"It's a difficult one to say... I didn't lose too much out of it but at the same time I lost a lot of tyre temp so it is a hard one. I was fine for position with Barichello, they had just lapped us but as I said if it had cost me points I would have been a bit more disappointed."
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