Team Lotus satisfied with solid qualifying session
During today's Canadian Grand Prix qualifying session at the Gilles Villeneuve street circuit, Team Lotus drivers Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen qualified in 19th and 20th position for tomorrow's race.
Jarno Trulli, Car 21 - Chassis T128-01: “I'm pleased with the performance today. It was very windy out there, and a lot cooler than yesterday which maybe affected our ability to get the most out of the tyres, but I think I got as much out of the car as I could on the final lap in qualifying. The gap to the guys ahead keeps coming down and I think with the rain tomorrow it's going to be an eventful race, and hopefully we'll be in a position to take advantage of whatever happens.”
Heikki Kovalainen, Car 20 - Chassis T128-04: “A pretty good session for me today. The car felt fine and the strategy worked out as we wanted it to so I think we did what we set out to. Little by little we keep on improving and I'm looking forward to the race tomorrow - it's going to be eventful and I think what we've shown all season is that we can fight with the guys ahead, so let's see what happens.”
Thierry Salvi, Renault Sport F1 Support Leader: “We can be pleased with the performance today but it was more difficult than yesterday to extract the maximum pace from the car. I think we have some more work to do to get the most out of it but as there is only a small gap to the teams ahead and we have had good speed in the races all season I think that is encouraging for tomorrow.”
Mike Gascoyne, Chief Technical Officer: “That was a good qualifying session for us and overall it has been a very solid weekend so far for the whole team. Both drivers drove well in qualifying - Jarno struggled a bit with the brakes and Heikki couldn't improve on his second set of tyres as he reported that they had lower grip levels than the first, but we finished the session with a small gap to the cars ahead and I think we will have a good race tomorrow.”
Tony Fernandes, Team Principal: "I am very happy with today. From my perspective that was the best qualifying of my short career in Formula 1 because we showed that we did not have to rely on other teams making mistakes or using different tyre strategies to finish the session with a very small gap to making it into Q2 on merit. That is a clear sign that the hard work being put in across the team is paying dividends as we are genuinely edging ever closer to the midfield."
