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Di Resta qualifies 6th for Singapore GP

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September 22, 2012 22:26 IST

Paul di Resta matched his career-best qualifying position on Saturday when he claimed the sixth place on the grid for the Singapore Grand Prix even as his Sahara Force India team-mate Nico Hulkenberg missed out on the top-10.

Resta clocked his best lap at 1m 47.241 while Hulkenberg's timing of 1:47.975 was good enough for only 11th place as he could not get into Q3.

It was the season's best qualifying result for Di Resta so far, who also qualified sixth at the British Grand Prix in Silverstone last year.

An eighth place start at the Canadian Grand Prix was Di Resta's best result before today's qualifying session.

McLaren's Lewis Hamilton secured the pole position with a flying lap of 1m 46.362s. The Briton was half a second quicker than Williams' Pastor Maldonado, who surprisingly took the second place on the grid.

Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel was third, ahead of McLaren's Jenson Button and Ferrari's Fernando Alonso.

Mark Webber was seventh in the second Red Bull, followed by Romain Grosjean of Lotus, Michael Schumacher and his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg.

Paul said he struggled with the balance of the car during the final practice and went back to basics to set things right.

"So we're in a strong position for tomorrow and hopefully we can come away with some big points. We looked quite competitive yesterday during long runs so we will focus on the strategy tonight and make sure we make the right calls tomorrow with the tyres," Paul said.

Nico Hulkenberg said a few errors cost him a place in Q3.

"Now I need to focus on making the most of tomorrow and doing what we can with the strategy. Starting eleventh means I get a free choice on tyres and we've seen already that tyre performance and degradation will be a big factor in the race. I need to get a clean start, get through the opening lap and see what I can do," the German said.

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