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Lotus F1 Team scored their first points of the season after
Romain Grosjean came home in a strong seventh position in the
Chinese Grand Prix. It wasn’t so plain sailing for Pastor
Maldonado who, despite a very strong start, suffered from
braking issues and late race contact from Jenson Button,
eventually retiring from the race with seven laps to go.
Romain started from P8 on the grid on his qualifying soft tyres,
changing to new medium tyres on laps 12 and 32.
Pastor started from P11 on the grid on his new soft compound
tyres, changing to new medium tyres on laps 11 and 33. He
retired from the race on lap 49.
Pastor Maldonado leads team mate Romain Grosjean. Image: Lotus F1 Team
Romain Grosjean, P7, E23-02
“It’s the best we could do today and it’s satisfying to have
achieved the team’s first points of the season. I’m proud of
everyone at Enstone and at the track. It wasn’t an easy circuit
for us, with a lot of front limited corners that we don’t
particularly like, but we had a strong start, and most of the
stints were good too. We’ve made a good job improving the car
race after race and it’s great to finally score points. The next
race could be promising too!"
Pastor Maldonado, DNF, E23-03
“I made a great start and we were running strongly early on
however later I had a braking issue which made it harder to
battle. We also have to understand why the brakes locked-up so
easily coming into the pits. We lost a lot of time here and it
compromised the rest of my race. It was a fantastic battle with
Jenson and we were passing each other very cleanly; a good, fun,
exciting battle. Unfortunately, it looks like he got his braking
point wrong and went into the back of me. This can easily happen
when you’re fighting for position, braking off-line and using
DRS, so it’s just one of those things. Certainly our race pace
is good, if we qualify a little higher we should be set for a
very good time in Bahrain."
Federico Gastaldi, Deputy Team Principal
"It feels great to gets points on the board and get that
particular monkey off our back. Romain performed strongly all
weekend and his seventh position is just reward. It wasn’t such
a good race for Pastor. He made a fantastic start, but suffered
later in the race with braking and also racing contact from
Jenson. The team is buoyed by Romain’s result and we’re looking
forward to increasing our tally in Bahrain.”
Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director
"That was a solid race from us which illustrates where we
expected to be fighting from the start of the year. Both cars
were looking in very good shape for a seventh and eighth finish,
and it was a great result from Romain meaning our first points
on the board. We achieved our target of overtaking the Red Bull
and both of the Saubers with Romain, who delivered everything
required. Pastor had a much more difficult race despite a strong
start and clearly had potential to finish comfortably in the top
ten too.” |
