Paul di Resta says Force India European Grand Prix practice pace is genuine

The British driver was sixth quickest in the afternoon session, with his team-mate Nico Hulkenberg second fastest behind pacesetter Sebastian Vettel.

Di Resta said the team had done nothing different to previous practice sessions, and claimed that Force India had simply been very strong from the outset.

"We are not doing anything different to a normal Friday, we are not running 10 kilos [of fuel]," said di Resta. "Since we have hit the track we've been competitive and right near the top.

"Straight from the first run this morning to the last run we have been where we had to be, and probably could have been the quickest car at the beginning of the session and went straight out on the medium compound. Hopefully it carries on until tomorrow."

He added: "I think you can see it has been a reasonable day. We are happy. We purpled the middle sector on both laps, but on both laps I found myself coming across Jenson [Button] in the last sector and never improved in the last sector so if you put a couple of tenths on we look very competitive.

"Had we put it all together, it was looking fairly positive, but it could all change tomorrow. I think that given where we have been all day we should be pretty happy."

Di Resta's comments were backed up by McLaren's drivers Button and Lewis Hamilton, who think the Force India VJM05 is surprisingly fast around the Valencia street circuit.

"Force India is extremely quick, and really we haven't seen that all year, so it seems like somebody else is having their opportunity this weekend," said Button.

"They're a little bit of a surprise. They've been the team that's been almost competitive but not quite there, and here they seem to be very competitive."

Hamilton added: "The Force India is unbelievably quick today. I don't know where they found their time."

Di Resta said his team had learned important lessons from the previous race in Canada, where the team had a difficult time.

"I think Canada has taught us a lot. Our approach here, whether it will compromise us more than other people we don't know. We have not been quite selfish, but gone down exactly where we think we will be for the whole weekend, not just today. This is a direction we are going to go. We haven't changed our thought process."