Malaysian GP one of the toughest races of the year: Paul Di Resta

Zeenews Sports Bureau

Force India driver Paul Di Resta, who picked one point after finishing in the 10th position, reflects on a busy Australian Grand Prix and talks about the physical challenge of the Malaysian Grand Prix. You got your season underway with a point in Melbourne - do you think you can deliver a repeat performance in Sepang this weekend? That will certainly be the aim. We picked up a point in Melbourne at the very last moment, but we were quite fortunate with the way the last lap unfolded and so it was a nice surprise. As I said after the race, we struggled for consistent race pace in Melbourne and it will be interesting to see if we can improve on that this weekend on a circuit with very different characteristics. How have you spent your time between the two races? I left Melbourne on Sunday night because it was important to get to Malaysia and start acclimatising as soon as possible. Sepang will be a tough fitness test and I’ll see how well the work over the winter has prepared me. I definitely feel in good shape at the moment. Would you say the Malaysian Grand Prix is the most physically demanding race of the season? It’s up there alongside Singapore as one of the toughest races of the year, simply because of the heat and humidity. While you are driving it’s not too bad because you get some air flow through the car, but you really feel the heat when you’re sitting in the car in the garage with the heat soak from the engine and the tyres. That’s when you’re most uncomfortable in the cockpit.