A minor issue in his car prevented Paul di Resta from doing the desired number of laps but the Sahara Force India driver said they have collected good information on the tyres on the second day of the pre-season winter testing in Barcelona.
The Scot had 62 laps in his VJM-06-03 and his fastest lap came in 1:23.917s. Di Resta was eighth fastest among the 11 drivers, who tested their cars.
"We stopped a little bit early, but we still got plenty of running under our belt. Understanding the tyres is always a priority and we're getting a feel for the degradation rates, which have been quite high, although we have to remember that the track temperatures here are lower than we can expect at most races," Di Resta said.
"We've run most of the tyres apart from the super-softs so far. Learning about the tyres and a new car at the same time is never easy, but we're pretty pleased with how things have gone during the first couple of days," the Briton added.
Team's Chief Race Engineer Jakob Andreasen was satisfied with the outcome.
"We had a few small reliability issues with the car, which meant we were a bit short on our lap count for the day, but overall we covered off a lot of test items and tried some different set-up directions with the car.
"The track conditions have been reasonable with the temperatures in the mid-twenties for most of the day, and we've concentrated on understanding the tyres as much as we can. The new compounds are a challenge for all the teams, but we're getting the information we need to be ready for Melbourne," he said.
Adrian Sutil will take over driving duties before Jules Bianchi gets his chance for the final day on Friday.
Photograph: Mark Thompson/Getty Images
