• Bahrain Grand Prix

Di Resta philosophical after fourth

Paul di Resta matched his best-ever grand prix finish in Bahrain © Sutton Images

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• Report:
• Vettel eases to victory at action-packed Bahrain GP
  

• Race:
• Bahrain Grand Prix

• Drivers:
• Paul di Resta

• Teams:
• Racing Point

Paul di Resta was philosophical after losing out on a maiden podium in the closing laps of the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Di Resta was running in the top three for much of the race but a late pit stop from Romain Grosjean allowed him to close down the Force India on fresher tyres and he passed di Resta with just six laps remaining. Di Resta eventually came home fourth - 2.2s behind Grosjean - and he said dropping out of the top three so late shouldn't detract from what was a strong performance.

"It's obviously a bit disappointing late in the race but on the strategy we were on you were always going to be vulnerable at the end," di Resta said. "Unfortunately [Grosjean] not doing that well in qualifying I think cost us because he had two fresh sets of medium tyres and then you're on a three-stop; that was the key to today.

"I think we'll go away from here very happy. Had we scored some good points in Malaysia - which we were on course to do - this would be quite a successful first four races. So I'm looking forward to Barcelona, we just need the team to work a bit harder and bring some upgrades because the potential of this car - if we can just switch it on a little bit more I think there's far more we can do with it."

Di Resta believes the weekend as a whole has shown that he is close to finally making it in to the top three.

"We can definitely say the heat helps us so we would certainly like it to be very hot in Barcelona, but whatever it is it's the same for everybody. I think we should be happy with what we've achieved here; qualifying in the top seven and then again running very strong at some points of the race but just losing out. We'll get on the podium one day I hope and hopefully that's very soon."

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