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Pastor Maldonado finished eighth in a highly eventful United
States Grand Prix whilst Romain Grosjean retired from the race
because of damage sustained to his car at the first corner. The
Grand Prix started wet with a dry line emerging through the
race. There were a number of safety car periods of both virtual
and real iterations.
Romain started from P10 on the grid on new intermediate tyres.
He pitted at the end of lap one for new intermediate tyres, then
lap 9 for new soft tyres. He retired at the end of lap 10 as a
consequence of the lap one damage.
Pastor started from P12 on new intermediate tyres, changing to
new intermediates on lap 18 then new softs on laps 27 and 43.
Romain Grosjean, DNF, E23-04
“I had a good start, but in the middle of the first corner I
felt a hit from behind. This gave me a puncture and the damage
meant that the floor and braking cooling ducts were damaged. We
tried continuing but the brake temperatures were just too high
and we had to retire for safety reasons. It’s a shame because it
would have been a good race as far as we know with the
experience we have and the set-up we were on… Everything should
have been quite nice but now we’ll never know!”
Pastor Maldonado, P8, E23-03
“We are in the points once again which is the main positive
thing for the team. It was quite a busy race with a lot of
fighting around me, and even some fighting with the car as it
didn’t quite perform as expected. It was a little bit strange
because we are normally quite strong in the races; better than
in qualifying in fact. My crew were great all day with
qualifying and the race. We hope to continue scoring strong
points in the remaining races.”
Federico Gastaldi, Deputy Team Principal
“Firstly congratulations to Lewis Hamilton, a deserving world
champion who took his title in the best way possible. He and the
entire Mercedes AMG F1 team have done a fantastic job this year.
It was an unfortunate day for Romain as his race was ended so
early through no fault of his own. Pastor secured a good top ten
finish which adds to our points tally. After a tough build-up to
the race Formula 1 put on a great spectacle at the Circuit of
the Americas so we thank everyone in Austin for all their
efforts. I’m sure we’re all hoping for better weather next year!”
Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director
"It was an eventful race but we weren’t able to capitalise on
all the opportunities. Unfortunately we had to retire Romain
very early as his rear floor and brake cooling was damaged in
the contact at the first corner. We tried to keep racing but it
wasn’t safe to continue. Pastor scored useful points but we
weren’t able to fight higher unfortunately."
Images: Copyright
Lotus f1 Team |
