Sahara Force India Formula One Team (SFI), the sole Indian representative at the F1 Grand Prix, managed a fourth place finish at the Singapore Grand Prix (GP) on September 23, 2012. The morale boosting finish came by the hands of twenty six year old Paul Di Resta who chose the perfect time to pick his spot and finish a career high at a nerve wrenching race that saw the race leader Lewis Hamilton's retirement.
The Scottish born Di Resta started sixth on the starting grid and chased the current Formula One leader, Ferrari's Fernando Alonso at the Marina Bay Street Circuit. Di Resta's fabulous finish seemed like the another good result for Sahara Force India, as the team's second driver Nico Hulkenberg’s had earlier secured a fourth spot finish at the 2012 Belgian Grand Prix held in August.
The Briton will remember the Singapore Grand Prix throughout his life and his sparkling result could work wonders towards the team-spirit among his fellow drivers and the pit crew. The result could prove beneficial for Sahara Force India's position on the constructor's standings during the later stages of the season and also helped Di Resta to overtake Michael Schumacher and finish at the eleventh spot on the driver charts with 44 points.
Expressing his delight after the Singapore F1 GP, Paul Di Resta said, “Fourth place is a great team result and my best day in Formula One so far. We qualified well, raced hard and took advantage of a few retirements, but in the final stint we certainly showed that we had great pace. I don't think the safety car really impacted on my race too much and I was able to make clean restarts each time and hold my position. I was very close to Alonso in the closing stages, but was just missing the pace to really challenge him for the podium. This result is just what we needed for our fight in the championship and I want to say a massive 'thank you' to the boys in the garage who put in a huge effort, as always.”
Di Resta's previous best result came at the 2012 Bahrain Grand Prix with a sixth final position and the Singapore GP result helped him to add 12 points to his current season's tally. Sahara Force India team could have finished with points from both its cars had its other driver, the Germany born Hulkenberg not have retired, following a puncture in the ending stages of the race.
