Di Resta 'relieved' to win title

The Scot went into the Hockenheim finale needing to score only a couple of points to win the championship, but he added that for the majority of the season things hadn't been so comfortable in his fight with Sebastian Vettel.

"It hasn't had time to properly sink in yet but I'm just relieved to have done it," di Resta told autosport.com. "It hasn't always been easy battling with my teammate."

Vettel needed to win both races at Hockenheim once di Resta had taken pole for the first race of the weekend, and the Scot was crowned champion despite jumping the start of the race.

"I knew once we had pole that Sebastian would have an even harder job to win the title," said di Resta. "I did jump the start, but that was because we'd had several aborted starts and my clutch was over heating.

"I decided to go early and take the penalty rather than risk retiring from the race and not being able to do anything about the championship."

Di Resta is the third consecutive Brit to win the F3 Euro Series title, although he said that was in the back of his mind when he joined reigning champions ASM for this year.

"I suppose it did add some extra pressure, but it didn't really bother me," he added. "I was confident in the team at the start of the year and they did a great job for me."

Di Resta took five victories this year on his way to the title, and also won the prestigious Ultimate Masters at Zandvoort earlier in the year.