A reasonable day for Lotus although hydraulic problems affect Kovalainen
The Hungarian Grand Prix Friday Practice sessions saw Lotus Racing finish the day just under one second ahead of their nearest rival and complete a total of 88 laps, despite a hydraulics problem on Heikki’s car which curtailed his running in the afternoon session.
Jarno Trulli: (Chassis T127-04)
FP1: 22 laps, 1.25.032, 19th
FP2: 37 laps, 1.24.553, 19th
“It was a good, trouble free Friday session, so I’m very happy with how it went. We did a lot of work on the setup so generally the car balance hasn’t been too bad. Obviously it’s a bumpy circuit which evolves all the time, so it’s important to follow up the evolution. We’ve also been able to evaluate the tyres, which is important for both qualifying tomorrow and for the race on Sunday.”
Heikki Kovalainen: (Chassis T127-01)
FP1: 23 laps, 1.25.210, 20th
FP2: 5 laps, 1.27.705, 24th
“The track is good and there’s a great atmosphere out there. This morning we were able to complete the programme without any problems, but when I went out this afternoon we almost immediately had a mechanical issue that unfortunately the boys couldn’t fix, so we lost the afternoon session. That’s the way it goes sometimes, but I’m sure that we’ll be ok tomorrow. It’s still too early to say how well suited the car is to the track, I’d have obviously had a better idea if I’d been able to run this afternoon, but this morning was pretty encouraging, and it’s really not too bad at all when we look at our direct competitors.”
Jody Egginton, Chief Engineer: “Mixed fortunes today – with Jarno we completed today’s tasks and put a lot of mileage on the option tyre, so we’ve got a lot of good data from that. Heikki was very unlucky to have a car problem which prevented him from putting in any decent time this afternoon – we tried to resolve it but the time beat us. Despite that we got a lot of valuable information from them both this morning, and more from Jarno this afternoon, so I think we’ll be in pretty good shape tomorrow.”
Mike Gascoyne, Chief Technical Officer: “A reasonable day although we had a hydraulic issue on Heikki’s car which unfortunately limited his running in the second session. With Jarno we were able to complete the full programme, and the cars look like they are where we expect them to be and we have to make sure we have a reliable Saturday and Sunday.”
Source: Lotus F1
