Force India suffer hydraulic problem at Mugello test

Mugello (Italy), May 3 (IANS) Sahara Force India's Paul di Resta could do only 14 laps on second day of the Formula One mid-season testing here as the VJM05 suffered a hydraulic problem.

Di Resta, who took over the testing duties from reserve driver Jules Bianchi, spent most of Wednesday in the garage while his team tried to fix the hydraulics issue. The Silverstone outfit even changed the car's engine ahead of the final session Thursday.

The mechanical problem also forced the the team to change its schedule for the final day at the Mugello Circuit. Nico Hulkenberg was supposed to do the running Thursday but now di Resta will make up for the lost time on the second day by using the morning session.

"It is never nice to spend so much time sitting in the garage, but we had a few reliability concerns that we needed to resolve before we continued running," said chief engineer Jakob Andreasen.

"We suspected the issue was related to the hydraulic system of the car so changed that as a precaution. At the same time we chose to make the most of the downtime by bringing forward the engine change, which had been planned for the end of the session.

"Due to the lack of running for Paul, he will now stay on for half a day tomorrow, before Nico takes over in the afternoon," he added.