• Italian Grand Prix

Senna slams di Resta for pushing him off the track

Paul di Resta and Bruno Senna banged wheels on the run down to the second chicane © Sutton Images

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• Race:
• Italian Grand Prix

• Drivers:
• Paul di Resta
• |
• Bruno Senna

• Teams:
• Force India
• |
• Williams

Bruno Senna was left fuming at Paul di Resta after the Italian Grand Prix following an incident in which he was forced off the track on the approach to the second chicane.

The clash of wheels occurred early in the race and lost Senna a place as he ran across the run off area and rejoined the track in 11th. He said similar moves had been punished, drawing comparisons to Romain Grosjean's start line move at Spa-Francorchamps and Sebastian Vettel's move on Fernando Alonso later in the race, but did not want to question the stewards' decision.

"It was pretty clear," he explained. "I had the front wing of my car next to his car and then under braking he squeezed me off the track and we touched. Fortunately we didn't launch each other. For me a driver has been banned for a race for doing something similar to that and even Sebastian Vettel got a drive-through penalty for doing something similar to that. It is the stewards' decision and we respect it, but I don't think what Paul did was right. Sometimes we make errors in judgement, but it's up to the stewards to decide."

Asked if he expected di Resta to get a penalty, he replied: "What I expected was for Paul to give me space. I don't expect anything from the stewards because it's their decision and not mine. But I don't push people off the track and that's what I expect of my competitors."

He said he would raise the issue at the next drivers' briefing to understand what is acceptable going forwards.

"It's important to raise these points and try to understand why the decision was taken one way and the other was taken another way. We'll see but it won't change the result of today but hopefully it will change the result of similar situations in the future."

Senna went on to finish tenth, but felt a better result was possible.

"It's good to score a point. I think this is one of the tracks that we weren't so optimistic about our pace. I think scoring a point was a good achievement, but even looking back at our own race, if we were more aggressive with the strategy at the first stop then we could have scored more points by gaining track position. We were afraid of running out of tyres, but in the end track position was everything and we needed to be there to do it. It's a lesson learned for me as well to do it and learn how the tyres feel and give the team good feedback. But from now on we go back to the tracks that use maximum downforce and that's where are car feels most at home."

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