(Lotus F1 Team)
The Lotus F1 Team headed into today’s opening track action
at the Bahrain International Circuit having scored their first points of the
season courtesy of Romain Grosjean last time out in China.
In Free Practice One
the Enstone outfit’s test driver Jolyon Palmer was behind the wheel of the E23
Hybrid. The GP2 champion completed 31 laps ending the session in fourteenth
place with a fastest time of 1m 39.283s. Speaking following his session, the
Englishman stated:
‘It was a great session for me and it felt far
smoother than last time out. It was great to be back in the car so soon after
Shanghai as I’ve been able to maintain a good momentum. I set my quickest time
quite early in the session, so I didn’t stay as high up the order with the long
runs later in the session, but I was happy with my progress. The car felt
improved since China, with similar characteristics enabling me to feel
comfortable and push. I’m happy with today’s work.’
In the opening session this morning, Pastor Maldonado
completed 23 laps and ended the session in 12th place with a fastest
time of 1m 38.842s. In the afternoon, the Venezuelan completed 34 laps and
ended the session in seventh place with a fastest time of 1m 35.474s. Speaking
afterwards Maldonado stated:
‘I was very happy with the car in the hot
conditions of the first session and also in the cooler, later session too. This
is very positive as we didn’t have to spend too much time working on refining
the set-up for the different track temperature but could work on our usual tyre
evaluations. The track condition was good, even at the start of FP1 so we were
able to have a productive day. I think we have good potential here this weekend.’
Romain Grosjean sat out the opening session this morning to
allow Jolyon Palmer to have some time in the car. In the afternoon session
Grosjean was back in the car, the Frenchman completed 31 laps and set a fastest
time of 1m 36.334s which was good enough for 13th place. Speaking
following his afternoon in the E23 Grosjean commented saying:
‘It was a frustrating session for me as I
couldn’t get the car exactly how I wanted it, but we can see from Pastor’s lap
time that the pace is there once we get the set-up working. The circuit is
always great to drive and we run qualifying and the race in similar conditions
to those we saw in FP2 today, so we really need to get the car where we want it
overnight.’
The Lotus F1 Team’s Trackside Operations Director Alan
Permane stated:
‘Friday in Bahrain is a bit of an usual day now
as we run FP1 in hot daytime conditions, then FP2 is in much cooler conditions
similar to those of the race and qualifying. This gives us more of a challenge
for set-up as work done in FP1 isn’t as relevant to later, but we are well
versed in these situations. Once more, we had three drivers in the car today,
each of which delivered as we’d expect. Jolyon drove very well in his second
session in the car and had more pace than his lap time showed due to small
technical issue on his fastest lap. Pastor had a very strong day and was happy
with his car throughout both sessions. We still have some work to get Romain’s
car where we want it, but we have a clear direction of what to do.’
© Ben Johnston 2015
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