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Lotus F1 Team fought a tough Singapore Grand
Prix with Pastor Maldonado finishing twelfth and Romain Grosjean
classified thirteenth. Romain was able to feature strongly in
the top ten for much of the race, but diminishing tyre
performance late on meant a better finish was not possible.
Pastor sustained damage to his car after contact from Jenson
Button’s car which blunted his late-race performance.
Romain started from P10 on the grid on his qualifying super soft
tyres. He changed to scrubbed softs on lap 9 and new softs on
lap 26.
Pastor started from P18 on new super soft tyres, changing to new
super softs on lap 10, new softs on lap 27 and new super softs
on lap 54.
Romain Grosjean, P13, E23-04
“We had an aggressive strategy planned for today, which looked
good since we were as high as P8 at one point but the first
virtual safety car cost us dearly. I lost a lot of places on the
first lap, there was quite a lot of sliding going on and, as we
knew this wouldn’t be a great track for us – like Hungary and
Monaco – we knew it would be difficult. There was nothing left
in the tyres towards the end of the race and as soon as we were
out of the points, we chose to retire the car as we had some
concerns with the gearbox and didn’t want to risk a penalty in
Japan.”
Pastor Maldonado, P12, E23-03
“It was a really difficult race. The contact from the McLaren
was small but enough to break my diffuser. I was defending on
the inside and I don’t know where Jenson wanted to overtake me.
It’s a very narrow corner where it happened and there was no
chance for him to overtake. The damage meant we lost performance
at the rear at the time in the race when we wanted to preserve
tyre life. Sadly it wasn’t possible to maintain the pace and the
tyres so we had to make an additional, unplanned stop.”
Federico Gastaldi, Deputy Team Principal
"We scored no points today but we certainly fought hard. It’s a
long, hot and humid race so thanks to Pastor and Romain for
pushing to the maximum for every lap. Everyone in the team has
been working hard all week so it’s frustrating for all of us
when we fall short of the points. We’re certainly focused on a
better result in Japan.”
Nick Chester, Technical Director
"That was a long tough race for us. Romain lost positions at the
start so we brought forward his stops to undercut and gain track
position. Unfortunately this meant we missed out on a quick pit
stop under the virtual safety car at the first stop. We suffered
worse tyre degradation than expected on Romain's final stint
which cost us in the last few laps. Pastor made up positions
from his start but was compromised later on after the damage
sustained from Jenson. We are now looking forward to Suzuka."
 Images: Copyright
Lotus F1 Team |
