Valsecchi and Razia on hand for Lotus
An interesting day for the Lotus team as they had two rookie drivers on hand to test their T128 as the testing in Barcelona get's back into action. The two drivers successfully completed the planned programme and ran mainly without problems.
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."
Luis 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."
