Delighted Di Resta hails effort of pit crew after fourth place

Starting from sixth on the grid, Di Resta was aided by retirements to the front-row duo in McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton and Pastor Maldonado in his Williams.

But over the course of the full two-hour race Di Resta did not put a wheel out of place around the Marina Bay Street Circuit, whilst his team in Force India called it perfectly regarding strategy.

“This is a fantastic result for me personally,” said Di Resta.

“And we’ve done it on merit over the whole weekend, and this is the most demanding and toughest race for a car and the driver.

“It takes a lot to recover from, but it will be nice to have the next few days now to reflect on what we’ve achieved.

“The guys have said the focus is on next year, but hopefully it will spur them on to hang on that little bit longer to give us something and gain performance over the closing races (of this season).

“My whole side of the garage seem to have a good understanding as to what is making this car work at the moment.

“So fourth place is a great team result and my best day in Formula 1 so far.

“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 have put in a huge effort, as always.”

Following the second safety car period, after Michael Schumacher ran into the back of Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne, Di Resta even managed to keep pace with Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso late on.

A podium finish, however, eluded him as it was too much to hope that another of the front-runners would fall by the wayside.

“I was very close to Alonso in the closing stages, but was just missing the pace to really challenge him for the podium,” added Di Resta.

“And I’d much rather beat someone through driving as opposed to reliability, even though you will take finishing on the podium any time.

“It’s fourth place, and as long as we keep trying one day it will go one better.

“The dream is to get on to the podium, and then the dream will be to get a win.”