29/06/2013
NEWS STORY
Mat Coch & Chris Balfe write:
Paul di Resta has been excluded from today's qualifying results after his car was found to be underweight during post-session scrutineering.
The Scot, who had qualified fifth will consequently start the race from the back of the grid, a move that will further sour his relationship with his team.
Speaking in the wake of today's session in which he recorded his best qualifying since Monza 2012 he said he was "over the moon".
"I think the whole team can feel very satisfied with fifth," he said. "The morning practice session was difficult so it feels great to come through and end up just behind two Mercedes and two Red Bulls.
"For tomorrow our tyre wear looks healthy and we’ve given ourselves a good opportunity to get in some clean air during the race. I will sleep well tonight and hope that we can have a straightforward race, and come away with lots of points.”
However, his hopes took a knock shortly after the session when his car failed a weight check. The FIA's technical delegate Jo Bauer subsequently confirmed that the Scot's car had been found to be 1.5 kg below the minimum weight, after all fuel was drained from the car, and therefore in breach of the regulations.
Article 26.1(c) of the Sporting Regulations state that a car may be excluded if it does not meet the minimum weight requirement. Cars must weight 643kg without fuel but with the driver, di Resta's car was found to be 1.5kg underweight.
The team is understood to have argued that there was a discrepancy with the Scot's weight, however, the claim held little water with the stewards who excluded him from the results which leaves him demoted to the back of the grid.
It is the latest in a string of disappointments for the Scot, who in Canada lambasted his team for what he believed was a poor strategy call in qualifying. That followed on from a similar experience in Monaco where the 27-year-old felt his qualifying was compromised by the team's tyre strategy in improving conditions.