(The Lotus F1 Team)
The Lotus F1 Team headed into today's Singapore Grand Prix in search of their first points since the Monaco Grand Prix earlier this season at a circuit where last season Kimi Raikkonen gave them a third place finish.
The Enstone outfit have struggled this season and despite signs of improvement in performance for the team with E22, Pastor Maldonado started the race from 18th place while Romain Grosjean started from 16th place.
However when it came to the race itself, Pastor Maldonado finished the event in 12th place justa ahead of Romain Grosjean. Speaking after the race the Venezuelan commented:
'We got the maximum out of our performance today and we had a strong consistent race. I’m pretty happy about this after the issues we had earlier in the weekend. I pitted once more than the others during the safety car period but it didn’t affect my position. It was a tough race, especially the last ten laps where the tyres needed a lot of managing, but I think we were able to do a great race today.'
Romain Grosjean, who was very upset in the heat of the moment following yesterday's qualifying session came home just behind his team mate in 13th place commented on the race from his point of view by saying:
'It was hot out there; things were looking pretty alright until the safety car, we were fighting for points. Unfortunately, I tried to attack too hard on the restart. I wanted to give it everything and with cold soft tyres after a slow safety car period, it was just too much once at the corner. From then on, I couldn’t pass back up through the field to get points.'
The Enstone outfit head to the next race, the Japanese Grand Prix at the Suzuka International circuit in 8th place in the Constructors championship on 8 points having lost ground to the Toro Rosso team as a result of Jean Eric Vergne's sixth place finish. Lotus are now 19 points behind the Italian team with five race's remaining. Speaking following today's race, deputy team principal Frederico Gastaldi commented by saying:
'We were very close to scoring points with Pastor and Romain today. Unfortunately we couldn’t convert the potential into reality in the end but the team did a great job to get both cars to finish the race after the difficulties that we had through the course of the weekend. So I’m happy. Not rock and roll, but happy.'
The team's Trackside Operations Director Alan Permane commented on the race saying:
'Unfortunately we didn’t have the pace to challenge for points today but we were very close, closer than we have been for a long time. The safety car period obviously influenced our race strategy so it’s hard to say what the maximum could have been were it not for that. We’re pleased with the improvement of the E22 which we hope to be able to harness in the next races.'
© Ben Johnston 2014
However when it came to the race itself, Pastor Maldonado finished the event in 12th place justa ahead of Romain Grosjean. Speaking after the race the Venezuelan commented:
'We got the maximum out of our performance today and we had a strong consistent race. I’m pretty happy about this after the issues we had earlier in the weekend. I pitted once more than the others during the safety car period but it didn’t affect my position. It was a tough race, especially the last ten laps where the tyres needed a lot of managing, but I think we were able to do a great race today.'
Romain Grosjean, who was very upset in the heat of the moment following yesterday's qualifying session came home just behind his team mate in 13th place commented on the race from his point of view by saying:
'It was hot out there; things were looking pretty alright until the safety car, we were fighting for points. Unfortunately, I tried to attack too hard on the restart. I wanted to give it everything and with cold soft tyres after a slow safety car period, it was just too much once at the corner. From then on, I couldn’t pass back up through the field to get points.'
The Enstone outfit head to the next race, the Japanese Grand Prix at the Suzuka International circuit in 8th place in the Constructors championship on 8 points having lost ground to the Toro Rosso team as a result of Jean Eric Vergne's sixth place finish. Lotus are now 19 points behind the Italian team with five race's remaining. Speaking following today's race, deputy team principal Frederico Gastaldi commented by saying:
'We were very close to scoring points with Pastor and Romain today. Unfortunately we couldn’t convert the potential into reality in the end but the team did a great job to get both cars to finish the race after the difficulties that we had through the course of the weekend. So I’m happy. Not rock and roll, but happy.'
The team's Trackside Operations Director Alan Permane commented on the race saying:
'Unfortunately we didn’t have the pace to challenge for points today but we were very close, closer than we have been for a long time. The safety car period obviously influenced our race strategy so it’s hard to say what the maximum could have been were it not for that. We’re pleased with the improvement of the E22 which we hope to be able to harness in the next races.'
© Ben Johnston 2014
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