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Lotus Racing’s Malaysian Grand
Prix saw both cars cross the finish line at the
Sepang Circuit, Jarno Trulli in 17th and Heikki
Kovalainen unclassified, ten laps down at the
flag.
After a visit to the garage from the Malaysian
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, and the
Badminton World Number One player Datuk Lee
Chong Wei, both cars were poised and ready when
the red lights went out. Heikki Kovalainen, who
started in 15th place after a very good
qualifying session, had a tricky race. Off the
grid his Lotus Racing Cosworth T127-01 was
caught in a tussle with Lucas Di Grassi which
caused a left rear puncture, leading to a quick
pit stop on lap 12. 20 laps in he had to pit
again with a hydraulics issue but his pitcrew
were determined not to give up and he was soon
back out on track to complete the race.
Heikki Kovalainen: “It was still a very positive
race for us, despite the issues. My start wasn’t
fantastic and it meant I dropped immediately to
the back. After that I got into a good rhythm,
but started to see some issues on the dash. I
tried to make a move on Di Grassi, but clipped
his front wing when I was going past and damaged
my left rear tyre, so had to come in to pit.
Even with the problems we had the car was
competitive and I was very comfortable. Compared
to the other new teams our times are very
competitive indeed, so I’m not going to let this
race trouble me – we learned a lot and now we’ll
move on and look ahead to China.”
Jarno Trulli, in 18th position at the start, was
in an early tangle with Timo Glock, but he
managed to push through, finishing the race in
17th place. “We made a good start, but then on
the second lap I was hit by Glock, which made me
spin, and from then on my race was compromised.
Despite that I got the car home to the end and
that shows our focus on reliability has been
worth the effort.”
Mike Gascoyne, Chief Technical Officer: “The
beauty of sport is that you have highs and lows,
and after the high of yesterday, with Heikki in
Q2, it was a bit of a low today. Jarno had some
handling problems due to damaged bodywork at the
rear, and did a great job to bring the car home.
With Heikki, he had some very high temperatures
which we managed to fix in the pit, and as soon
as he was out again he was very competitive,
took the car to the flag, and really showed what
the car was capable of. So it was disappointing,
but at least we managed to get two cars to the
flag. We’ve learned a lot and are looking to
move on and be on good form for China.”
Team Principal Tony Fernandes: “It was good to
get two finishes; obviously we’re unhappy with
the position, but as we’ve always said it’s a
major achievement just to finish. And we did -
as you could see later Heikki’s car had good
pace, so that’s encouraging. We take a lot away
from this weekend, and we’ll take everything we
have learned with us to China, and from
Barcelona, as we’ve always said, we’ll be
looking to build on the very solid start to the
season. I’m proud of the effort the whole team
put in today in tough, hot conditions, and we’re
here to fight another day.”
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