14 October 2012

Lotus LMP2 at the 6 Hours of Fuji

#31 Thomas Holzer (GER) – Mirco Schultis (GER)
#32 Kevin Weeda (USA) – James Rossiter (GBR) – Vitantonio Liuzzi (ITA)

Race
#32 Position 5
#31 retired

The 6 Hours race of Fuji started off well for Lotus when Vitantonio Liuzzi took the lead in LMP2 class. Car #32 was in second position for half of the race. But after several contacts with competitors, a stop and go penalty and a Stewards request to change the rear end, the team lost positions in the last three hours of the race. Nevertheless, after all these incidents, the team managed to finish the race with car #32 in fifth position.

Car #31 had to retire because of a failure of the alternator. Until then, Thomas Holzer and Mirco Schultis showed a strong performance and climbed up to sixth position in LMP2 class.

All in all, it was a promising weekend for Lotus as the team is able to fight for the podium. The team is now heading to the season final in Shanghai and wants to have another good result with both cars.

Thomas Holzer, Race driver #31:
“Unfortunately, we had to retire after the alternator failed. Until then, we had a good race and showed a good performance. We have to focus now on the next and final race of the season. Hopefully we can have a better result in China.”

Vitantonio Liuzzi, Race driver #32:
“I had a good start and was first in LMP2 class for a while. But then I was hit a several times by some other cars and lost many positions. After this, I was able to make up for positions again and was back in second place. It is a shame that we did not finish on the podium but with these damages it was not possible today.”