Paul di Resta says he exceeded his own expectations with his performance in qualifying for the Malaysian Grand Prix.
The Force India driver, in his second grand prix, qualified in 14th position – the same as in Australia – three places ahead of teammate Adrian Sutil. Di Resta admitted he was excited about his and the team's progress.
"It was a very good job done by the team and equally, I think it was a very good lap by myself," said di Resta. "We got more than I think we thought we were going to get out of it and I think that we have certainly closed the gap.
"But, tomorrow is going to be a long race, in tricky weather conditions, but I am certainly getting more excited now about our progress with regard to improving our performance in the future."
Sutil was not as happy, the German saying he was surprised not to be able to improve during his Q2 runs.
"The first qualifying session was not too bad I think and I felt quite positive," he said. "But we did not improve too much in the second session, which I was a little surprised about and we had a problem with a mis-shift. But I know the team is working hard to try and solve these issues before the race tomorrow."