Even with a difficult Saturday behind him at Brands Hatch, Paul Di Resta took 27 points after putting his Mercedes second on the grid for today’s race and taking race two victory ahead of Stuttgart stablemate Gary Paffett.
With Paffett also struggling off the start like race one winner Daniel Juncadella, the Monaco-based driver knew that the chance to get into the lead early was in his favour.
“I got the momentum of the line and had the better line through into Paddock and had the run up the hill into Druids, brake a little bit later, knowing that there was that space,” said the 32-year-old to TouringCars.Net post race.
Ulrich Fritz had already confirmed that he is happy for the drivers to fight for the title, but to not take each other out, which was very much the case regarding the two Britons in their hard, but fair duel.
“There is always that element of if somebody turns into you whilst you’re on the inside, you hit them, it’s your fault. Got the job done there, but it was a bit of bugger that yesterday was so bad, and it was identified as one thing, which we changed overnight and it transformed the car.”
Several drivers have had night racing experience, but Di Resta was very adamant that the challenges will be very apparent when the series goes to Misano in just two weeks’ time under the floodlights.
“I’m just glad that I’ve raced in the night this year at some point, but it’s going to be new, going to be hot,” he said, having now closed the gap to Paffett to 29 points.
“I’m not sure how the lights are going to work at Misano, and there’ll be no time to test them.
“It is a floodlit night race, the fans will see something great and it will be awesome when you see the brake discs glow in the dark and the lights on the car.”
He also expressed his concerns regarding some factors that may provide their fair share of challenges, but not just for the race drivers.
“It’s going to be different racing at a track that has a lot of run off areas, where I’m not sure that they are going to manage that.
“Racing at any new venue is great, such as Rimini, a great holiday destination. It’s the key, but it holds a special place in my heart, given my close links to my name in Italy.
“There won’t be any light in the cockpit when we go racing there, which will be different, as everything that you’ll need to see will be quite hard to identify. It’ll be the same for everybody – just get your sh*t together.”