Force India show strong pace in Valencia practice

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Sahara Force India's Nico Hulkenberg emerged as the second fastest driver while Paul Di Resta was sixth overall in the second practice session ahead of Sunday's European Grand Prix, here on Friday.

Hulkenberg's flying lap of one minute 39.465 seconds in the second session placed him second, behind Red Bulls' Sebastian Vettel, who timed fastest lap of 1:39334s.

Paul Di Resta managed sixth position in both the sessions. His timing in first session was 1:41.105 and improved it to 1:39.700 in the second.

Team's reserve driver Jules Bianchi was 15th in FP1 with his fastest lap of 1:42.175.

"Just the one session for me today, but it went very well and we were able to pack a lot of work into the afternoon. I feel quite comfortable with the car and we managed some good runs on both tyres compounds today. I think the key factor for the rest of the weekend will be managing the tyres if the temperatures increase as expected and making sure we can deliver the same level of performance," Hulkenberg said.

Paul was confident that team would be able to make Q3 in tomorrow's qualifying session.

"When I got in the car this morning the baseline set-up was a good starting point and I didn't really change that much for the rest of the day. Our single lap speed looks strong, as does the long run pace, and we appear to have a good feel for the tyres already. Given the pace we have shown today we seem competitive so hopefully we can challenge for the top ten in qualifying tomorrow," he said.