Japanese GP: Paul di Resta stymied by clutch issue

The Scot, who started ahead of Hulkenberg on the grid in 11th, finished the race 12th, having dropped to 15th on the first lap.

The German meanwhile moved up from 15th to finish seventh in the race.

"Something broke in the clutch drive on the beginning of the parade lap, and we had a bit of warning that had happened, so we arrived on the grid not really knowing what it was going to do," explained di Resta.

"Unfortunately going into the first corner as one of the last cars, I was a bit hesitant through all the crashes, but that was the right thing to do to keep it on the road.

"Really after that I was just stuck in traffic and I couldn't get clear in the first stint and I think there you lose a lot of time.

"From there on we probably weren't the quickest but we certainly if we had made more of an impact at the beginning, it probably would have seen us through the race and hopefully would have scored us points. A testing day."

Force India dropped to 35 points behind sixth-placed Sauber in the constructors' championship and di Resta called for the team to work on its reliability.

"Clearly, our reliability, we need to get our act together because it's just cost a little bit of points today I think," he said.