Both Team Lotus cars retire with water leaks
Despite a competitive race from both drivers, the Hungarian GP ended on a low for Team Lotus. First Jarno Trulli had to abandon the race with a water leak on his car, and a little later through the race Heikki Kovalainen had to do the same, likely with identical problems.
Heikki Kovalainen, Car 20, Chassis T128-04:
“A weekend of real ups and downs for me. I struggled to find a decent balance in the practice sessions but then it all came good in quali where I put in a really good lap after finally getting comfortable with the setup. I started the race well and was keeping pace with Maldonado, Sutil, Perez and the guys around me, and right through the early stops I was able to push them, and keep pulling away from the guys behind. We came in for inters when the rain really started again about two thirds of the way through the race, then back in pretty shortly afterwards for options again, but then I was given the instruction to shut the engine off due to a water leak. Having seen how close we were in race pace to the midfield I’m not disappointed – it’s just another step in the growth of the team and we’ll pick up where we left off in Belgium in a few weeks time.”
Jarno Trulli, Car 21, Chassis T128-01:
“My run of bad luck in Hungary seems to have struck again! The car has been great all weekend and even though I didn’t have the best start I was really enjoying myself out there. I got past Timo pretty early on and then had a good first stop but it looks like a water leak brought my race to an early end. Despite that, the steps forward we’ve taken here have been really positive, so after the break I’m sure we’ll be back fighting again at Spa.”
Thierry Salvi, Renault Sport F1 Support Leader:
“That was a bit of a hard race for us. Heikki had a good start and was right in the mix but reliability issues brought both his race and Jarno’s to an end. We obviously wanted to complete the full race distance so now we need to make sure that we do not see this sort of problem again."
Mike Gascoyne, Chief Technical Officer:
“A disappointing end to a strong race. Jarno stopped with a water leak and it looks like the same problem also ended Heikki’s race later on, but we need to get the cars back and take a closer look before we can be sure what the problems were. Until they stopped both Jarno and Heikki were having strong races, particularly Heikki in the middle stint when he was keeping a lot of cars behind him. So, overall it is disappointing to end like this, but we have definitely taken a step forward here so now we can go into the well deserved mid-season break which the whole team, here at the track and back at the factory, definitely deserve, and come back refreshed and ready for an even better second half of the season when we return in Spa.”
Riad Asmat, Chief Executive Officer:
"What a shame our weekend ended like that. Heikki had driven a fantastic race and had been fighting right up until the end with the guys ahead – his pace was better than we have seen all season so it is obviously very disappointing that through no fault of his own he could not bring the car home. Jarno’s race was also cut short which, after such a strong weekend for him, compounds the disappointment, but sometimes these things happen and we just have to make sure we learn from it, build on the positives and keep on pushing forwards.”
