Barcelona, Mar 2: Paul Di Resta got behind the wheels for Sahara Force India for the start of a second week of pre-season Formula One testing, managing to complete 98 laps "smoothly with no issues to report".

Di Resta clocked a fastest lap-time of 1:24.305.

"Another busy day and we managed to tick off all the objectives once again. The final test is all about adding new parts to the car, seeing how they perform, and getting our set-up sorted for Melbourne," Di Resta said.

"I think we have a good idea of where we need to be based on the performance of the car today and Nico will continue with that work tomorrow. As I said last week, we are definitely making progress in terms of performance and were getting a good understanding for the new 2012 tyre constructions," he added.

The team's chief engineer Jakob Andreasen was also pleased with how things panned out.

"Our second week in Barcelona has got off to a good start with another reliable day of running. Paul covered just shy of 100 laps and worked through the programme without any significant issues.

"The priority was to shakedown the second chassis, which we ran for the first time today, and that went smoothly with no issues to report," he said.

"As the first race in Melbourne approaches, there are more developments arriving at the track and our task this week is to evaluate as much as we can. The first of those were on the car today, so we carried out some aero passes and had some encouraging feedback from Paul."

Nico Hulkenberg will be in the driver's seat on Friday with Di Resta resuming the role on Saturday. Hulkenberg will be back behind the wheels on Sunday.

PTI