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8 March 2011

Team Lotus Barcelona Test, Circuit de Catalunya, 8 - 12 March 2011

Day 1

DAVIDE VALSECCHI: "First I want to thank Team Lotus for the opportunity to drive the car today. It was a great experience and one I want to build on with the team. To begin with it was obviously all new to me - new seat, more power, better brakes, the whole package, but by the end of the morning I was much more confident in the car and had the chance to push. By the time the morning session ended I think the team were pretty happy with how I performed so I can't really ask for more than that. It's definitely been a good day."

LUIZ RAZIA: "It was really good to get back into an F1 car and pretty much from the first laps I could feel that this car is a step forward from what I have driven before. Despite the delay this afternoon while the car was being fixed I'm pleased with how I performed. I know that with more running my times would have come down but today wasn't about setting fastest laps - it was about learning how to work with the team to the agreed plan and give feedback that helps the car and the team continue to develop."

MIKE GASCOYNE, CHIEF TECHNICAL OFFICER: "A pretty good first day of this fourth test. We managed to run through our whole programme with the two drivers and they both did an excellent job. Apart from one small spin for Davide at the end of his session neither of them made any mistakes and Luiz performed very well, despite his time in the car being slightly cut short due to a minor mechanical issue. I'm sure that he would have improved even further with more running and after having completed our plans for the day I want to thank both drivers for the work they have done in the car today."

Statistics:
Drivers: Davide Valsecchi (am) / Luiz Razia (pm)
Chassis: T128-01
Total laps: 81
Fastest laps: Valsecchi - 1.25.406 (lap 45) / Razia - 1.26.723 (lap 73)


Day 2

JARNO TRULLI: "We're pretty happy with how the day went - completing 98 laps gave us a chance to work through a number of setup options and we collected a lot of useful data on the tyre degradation. They're behaving pretty much how we expected them to and the changes we made to the car gave us the results we wanted so we'll look through all the information we've gathered and see if we can take another step forward tomorrow."

MIKE GASCOYNE, CHIEF TECHNICAL OFFICER: "Today was a very good day for us, much more productive than a couple of the days we have had in testing so far. It is good to complete 98 laps with no real problems on the car. We concentrated on long runs, looking at tyre degradation and setup options, and the pitcrew worked through a number of pitstop practices in advance of the first race so we ran through the entire plan and everyone is happy with the work that has been done today."

Statistics:
Driver: Jarno Trulli
Chassis: T128-01
Total laps: 98
Fastest lap: 1.26.090 (lap 79)

Day 3

JARNO TRULLI: "Obviously it's a bit frustrating that the gearbox issue cut short my time on track this morning, but we've now got some time back in the factory to fix the problems so I'm looking forward to heading to Australia and begin the fight with the midfield teams."

HEIKKI KOVALAINEN: "That was a pretty good afternoon for me. Jarno had some problems this morning with one of those things that's hard to predict but the team managed to get it sorted for the afternoon and we were able to work through the whole plan. I can feel it coming together well - we'll sort out the reliability and I think we are just where we want to be.

MIKE GASCOYNE, CHIEF TECHNICAL OFFICER: "A difficult morning for Jarno with the gearbox change. We had put a new 'box on overnight but saw a problem with it this morning so had to change it during the session. Unfortunately a water leak then meant that Jarno was not able to complete any real running, but this afternoon we made some real progress with Heikki. He was able to work through a program on the tyre options and the blown diffuser so after a tricky morning it was a very positive end to the day."

Statistics
Drivers: Jarno Trulli (am) / Heikki Kovalainen (pm)
Chassis: T128-03
Total laps: 46 (Trulli 6 / Kovalainen 40)
Fastest laps: Jarno Trulli - 1.34.490 (lap 5) / Heikki Kovalainen - 1.23.990 (lap 23)
 

Day 4:

HEIKKI KOVALAINEN: "That is obviously a fantastic end to the tests.
Everyone in the team has put in a lot of hard work and days like today are the reward. Completing a double-race distance has given us the chance to make a lot of progress on track and we have accumulated a huge amount of data that will be very helpful in Australia, Malaysia and China. I'm not only pleased with the mileage we've done today, i'm also pleased with the pace we've shown. It's too early to make predictions but I think we'll go to Melbourne and have a good chance to taking the step forward we want to. A good day!"

MIKE GASCOYNE, CHIEF TECHNICAL OFFICER: "An excellent last day of the test, and a very good way to finish the four pre-season tests. We completed our full programme today, worked through a lot of set-up options and also completed two race distance runs which is very satisfying. To have finished with a double-race distance is a great effort from the team who have worked extremely hard. It is clear that compared to this time last year we have made a huge step forward so this a great way to finish and now we can look forward to the action in Melbourne."

Statistics:
Driver: Heikki Kovalainen
Total laps: 138
Fastest lap: 1.23.437 (lap 36)
Chassis: T128-03