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Traffic played a big part in Lotus Racing’s
Brazilian Grand Prix qualifying session with
both Jarno Trulli and, in particular, Heikki
Kovalainen being unable to extract the maximum
times out of their cars in the damp conditions.
Jarno Trulli starts tomorrow’s race in 20th
place with Heikki Kovalainen just behind in
21st.
Jarno Trulli (Chassis T127-02) FP3: 18 laps,
best time 1.22.326, 19th / QUALIFYING: 20th,
1.22.250, 14 laps “There was a lot of traffic
out there because of the weather which meant I
couldn’t really put together my best lap. At the
end I managed to get a decent time in but it
felt like it was wetter than at the start of the
session and obviously that meant I couldn’t get
ahead of Timo. Despite that the car has felt
good all weekend in the wet and the dry
conditions, and I think tomorrow we’ll be strong.
We kept a dry setup on the car today and that
should put us in a good position for the race.”
Heikki Kovalainen (Chassis T127-03) FP3: 20 laps,
best time 1.22.874, 21st / QUALIFYING: 21st,
1.22.378, 14 laps “That was a disappointing
session for me. I was held up by traffic each
time I went for a quick run and definitely
didn’t get the most out of the car, but I think
we’ll be ok tomorrow. It’s a short track here
and it’s pretty normal that traffic plays its
part in qualifying but yesterday we worked hard
on making sure we have a good setup for the race
and it will be good to get back in the car
tomorrow and show what we can do.”
Mike Gascoyne, Chief Technical Officer: “A
fascinating qualifying session but slightly
disappointing for us. Both drivers lost their
quickest laps to traffic and Heikki in
particular was held up by Heidfeld on a couple
of occasions. However, with the dry forecast for
tomorrow and the performance of our car in dry
conditions we will look to have a strong race
and get both cars home across the finish line.”
Tony Fernandes, Team Principal: “Firstly I want
to say congratulations to Nico for such an
outstanding performance today. That is the first
Williams pole since 2005 and the very first time
AirAsia can celebrate a pole position - the
whole team deserves every plaudit coming their
way today and I am very proud to be part of the
Williams dream. For Lotus Racing it was a decent
job today from both Jarno and Heikki who were
obviously held up by the traffic. It is still
very pleasing that we keep taking the fight to
our direct competitors even though we have been
focusing on next year's car since back in July.
“It is also satisfying to see that all of the
off-track attention that is being paid to the
team has not distracted any of us from what is
important. I will be making an official
statement about the off-track situation in due
course but for now we are focusing on being a
professional race team that is gaining more
experience with every lap and turning that into
long-term success.”
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