Canadian GP: Angry di Resta blames gearbox issue for Q1 exit

The problem was detected during his first run in Q1, leading to him being held in the garage before he returned to the track on new intermediate rubber.

Di Resta estimated that he spent two-and-a-half minutes in the garage and, having returned to the pits before team-mate Adrian Sutil, rejoined the track 40 seconds after the German.

After setting a strong time in the first sector, rain had made the middle sector slow meaning that it was impossible to improve his time and finish the first segment of qualifying in the top 16.

He described the situation as "not acceptable", especially given the potential for a strong result in Canada.

"We had a bit of an issue with the gearbox settings being incorrect before qualifying," said di Resta when asked about what happened by AUTOSPORT.

"It was key to be on the track at the right time and though we probably did not have to change it, it was changed.

"The big thing is why it was wrong to begin with?

"The question is why did we try to fix it and not just go out because it was not going to make a difference?"

Di Resta, who criticised the team after being left out on worn intermediates in Q1 in Monaco, stressed that there was no connection between the two errors.

But he did admit that having back-to-back Q1 catastrophes is hard to take.

"Monaco was completely different," said di Resta. "I've run through it again and I would have made the same decision as the engineer did.

"Here, there has been an error, people have apologised for their error and I accept that.

"The bit I can't accept is that it's two weeks in a row.

"If it had happened just here, it would have been far easier to brush off.

"It's testing, but we recovered there [Monaco] and there's no reason why we can't recover again tomorrow."