Lotus has fallen back in the hierarchy
While Lotus's main rivals have developed their single-seaters, the Black and Golds arrived at a circuit that suits them very little without any notable updates. The consequence was immediate: Romain Grosjean will start 12th and Pastor Maldonado 14th.
There were no Lotus drivers in Q3 at Silverstone. Outpaced by Red Bull, Toro Rosso, and Force India, the drivers from the Enstone team clearly struggled with cars that were not comfortable at Silverstone.
Romain Grosjean, deprived of Free Practice 1 once again, still managed to outperform his teammate: « I think we had a sufficiently correct qualification today. We did a very good job with the car’s level on this track. The option tires worked as they should in Q1, but it seems we experienced a lot of understeer during Q2, which did not help us. Tomorrow’s race will be long, but by managing the tires well, we’ll see what we can do. It’s not the track where overtaking is the easiest, but as always, we will do everything to achieve the best possible result. »
Pastor Maldonado fell short by less than a tenth of a second to Romain Grosjean, but this gap is significant, as he will start one row behind the Frenchman on the grid: « Of course, I am not satisfied with my grid position. However, we have shown in the past that we are better in races than in qualifying. We hope that will be the case for Silverstone. I think we will have difficulties with the hardest tires and I was certainly not satisfied with the car’s balance this afternoon ».
Alan Permane, the Track Operations Director at Lotus, explains the lack of competitiveness of their cars at Silverstone: « We knew that Silverstone would not suit the strengths of our car and, unfortunately, this was the case in qualifying. It is a track that requires a lot of downforce, and we struggled against our main competitors. »
