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Hee is a short overview of the last weekend. As
racing is a very important part of what's Lotus
all about, this may be interesting for you.
FORMULA ONE – SINGAPORE GRAND PRIX
It was a trying weekend for Lotus Renault GP who
failed to build on recent points-scoring
finishes and, on this occasion, never threatened
the top ten. The R31 struggled with traction,
high tyre degradation and disappointing outright
pace, which had also been the case in Monaco and
Hungary – circuits with similar characteristics
to Singapore.
Vitaly Petrov could do no better than qualify
18th while Bruno Senna put in a heroic lap to
get into Q2 and secure 15th.
In the race there was little improvement on
these positions. Vitaly had a KERS problem which
cost him lap time and made overtaking and
defending all the more difficult. He finished
17th.
Bruno, meanwhile, made a good start but, having
just pitted on lap 10, made a mistake into the
hairpin, locked up, and hit the barrier. He
pitted for a new front wing, by which time he
was down to last place. He fought doggedly to
climb back up the field and crossed the line
where he started, in 15th.
Bruno Senna: “My first lap was very good but
then we suffered from some very high tyre
degradation. Then when I came to the hairpin I
hit the wall. This made my race very, very
complicated firstly because of the time lost
there and secondly because of the extra pitstop.
It could have been a much better race for us,
but we did what we could and we will now start
to think about Japan, where hopefully we can
bring out more potential from the R31.”
Vitaly Petrov: “Today we had a race to forget.
First of all I had KERS problems shortly after
the start, which cost me a few tenths each lap
and made it difficult to overtake. Then, the
tyres started to behave poorly. As cars came to
lap me, I was forced to slow and this caused the
tyre pressures to drop severely. We haven’t
performed at our usual level today, but the
final five venues are all places where the R31
should perform better.”
BRITISH GT CHAMPIONSHIP – DONINGTON PARK
Lotus Sport UK was triumphant in Round 9 of the
British GT Championship, with the red, white and
gold No.48 Evora winning the GT4 category from
pole position. It was the first class pole for
the team.
Touring Car regulars Phil Glew and James Nash
lapped Donington Park 100 times during the three
hour endurance race, which started in wet and
tricky conditions. No.48 incurred a stop-go
penalty late in the day after speeding at the
exit of the pitlane, but the car was already a
lap ahead of the competition. Other than a
faulty pitlane limiter, the car ran reliably. It
was the perfect GT debut for 25-year-old Nash,
who is currently fifth in the BTCC standings.
They finished a lap ahead of the second-placed
No.42 Ginetta of Josh Wakefield and Jake
Rattenbury, and even took the fight to a number
of the faster GT3 cars which failed to match the
Evora GT4’s grip in the wet.
The sister No.49 car of Freddy Nordström and
Leyton Clarke qualified fourth. The junior pair
were hunting down third when, 25 laps from the
end, the car suffered a drive shaft failure.
Phil Glew: “It was a fairly straightforward
race. We got a good start, we had great pace in
the wet and pulled a massive lead, and we kept
that lead pretty much all through the race. We
had a scary moment towards the end with the
stop-go penalty, but we had a big lead so it
didn’t matter too much. James and I got on
really well, we have a good team around us, and
it’s been a great weekend.”
Gary Ayles, team manager: “The boys drove a
blinder and the cars were brilliant. Apart from
the pitlane speeding it was an absolutely
faultless weekend for Evora 48, and fantastic to
claim another victory and our first pole of the
year. Phil and James actually had to run an
extra 25kg of ballast to get us above the driver
pairing minimum weight, but it didn’t slow
either of them down. Today it’s my birthday, and
this is the perfect present.”
Claudio Berro, Group Lotus director of
motorsport: “Lotus Renault GP will be taking
important upgrades to Japan and these, as well
as the remaining five tracks on the calendar,
should produce more satisfactory results for the
R31. And while F1 was racing into the darkness
in Singapore, our Lotus Sport UK team was
braving the daytime conditions at Donington. A
dominant victory in the GT4 category from pole
position is something Group Lotus and Lotus
Sport UK can be very proud of. It was a
brilliant demonstration of our Evora’s abilities,
and we’re thrilled with the result. Happy
birthday Gary!” |
