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Force India in no rush to sort drivers line-up for 2012

Force India boss Vijay Mallya says he remains happy to wait on sorting out his 2012 driver line-up, despite Paul di Resta's continued strong form making it a no-brainer for him to be retained

Di Resta was one of the stars of the Singapore Grand Prix, as he made the most of a good tyre strategy to deliver the best result of his F1 career and help boost Force India's chances of overhauling Renault in the constructors' championship.

But although it is now almost certain that di Resta will be retained in 2012, with the battle between Nico Hulkenberg and Adrian Sutil for the second seat, Mallya has said he will stick with his plan to only sort out his drivers after the season has finished.

"I have told them, please don't bother me about driver choices right now," Mallya told AUTOSPORT. "We will focus on getting a good position in the constructors' and we will talk about everything else later.

"Just leave it to me: I will think about it, but right now I am just enjoying the moment."

Mallya has said that di Resta has fully justified his promotion to a race seat this year, though, and that he was making him 'proud' with what he was delivering on track.

"We have full confidence in him, and that is why he is in the race seat," explained Mallya. "We always thought he was very talented. We had him as our third driver last year, and said we were going to put him in the race seat. Since then he is doing me proud."

Di Resta has said he hopes he has done enough to justify a contract extension at Force India, but knows nothing can ever be guaranteed in F1.

"I hope so, but I can only keep doing what I am doing," he said when asked if he felt he was now assured of a seat for next year. "I am thankful they gave me the opportunity this year.

"I would like to continue on, but it is up Vijay. I hope I am ticking the boxes for what they wanted and bringing the results back. I enjoy this team - they have good ambitions, working their way up and getting stronger."

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