Best Friday of the season for Lotus
Brazil’s FP1 and FP2 saw Lotus Racing enjoying one of their best Fridays of the season. Trouble-free sessions in the morning and the afternoon ended with Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen topping the new teams’ time sheets in 19th and 20th places respectively.
Jarno Trulli , Chassis T127-04:
FP1: 25 laps, best time 1.15.603, 19th
FP2: 47 laps, best time 1.14.984, 19th
“That was a pretty good day. It’s good to complete so many laps and have no problems at all. When the car feels well balanced, like it did today, you can push around the whole lap and end up where we did, ahead of the other new guys. I have to say this is one of my favourite tracks. It’s very technical and I think it suits my style well. We’ve made a few changes to the setup for this weekend and that’s given me more confidence in the car – I think you can see the results of that in my laptimes, and I think there’s more to come tomorrow.”
Heikki Kovalainen, Chassis T127-01:
FP1: 26 laps, best time 1.16.057, 21st
FP2: 43 laps, best time 1.15.101, 20th
“It was a good day for us. It started well, with the confirmation of the Renault engines next year, and then on track we got through the whole programme with no problems. The car felt good on both types of tyres and with the different fuel loads and when you compare our times with our direct competitors I think we’re looking very strong. I really like this circuit – it’s been evolving all day and it’s a good challenge to find the right setup to cope with the high speed and the low speed sections. When you have a good day like we have had today it’s a very rewarding circuit to drive.”
Dieter Gass, Sporting Director:
“We are all pleased with the performance of both cars today. There is obviously more work to do tonight, and I think there is still more to come from the cars, but the real variable will be the weather tomorrow. The forecasts are looking very interesting and it will be a good challenge for the drivers, the mechanics and the engineers to capitalise on any opportunities that arise on track tomorrow.”
Mike Gascoyne, Chief Technical Officer:
“It was a very successful day for us, perhaps one of the best Fridays of the year. Both cars ran without any problems and the performance looks good on the short and the long runs. We ended up exactly where we wanted to be, and we are maybe looking slightly more competitive with the midfield than we have been. On the whole this was a very good Friday.”
