The Lotus E22 seems to have good potential in Brazil
Rather competitive during the last Grand Prix held in Austin, the Lotus E22 also seems reasonably good on the Interlagos track, according to the two men driving it, Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado.
Romain Grosjean finished 15th in FP1 and 12th in FP2, and the Frenchman admits that his day wasn’t necessarily easy, but the Lotus driver remains optimistic for the rest of the Brazilian weekend as his E22 seems competitive.
« There were many things to think about today, and the conditions were not the easiest for making progress as the temperature changed a lot throughout the day. There were also a few interruptions with red flags during the afternoon session. As for the timesheet, we seem to have good potential here, so I will work closely with my engineers to see what improvements can be made by tomorrow, » said Grosjean at the end of his Friday in Interlagos.
Even optimistic on the side of Pastor Maldonado who regains the good sensations from Austin, where he finished in the points: « The car seemed pretty good today, as was the case in Austin, so it gives me a positive outlook for the rest of the weekend. The new track surface is quite slippery so we had our usual struggle to find grip but I’m glad the tire allocation has been changed. »
The Venezuelan is even dreaming of a place in Q3 tomorrow after his 7th place in FP1 and an 11th position in FP2: « It was good to finish FP1 in the top 10 so that must be our goal for qualifying tomorrow. »
Alan Permane, the track operations director, believes that there is still work to be done, particularly due to the changing weather conditions: « We had a relatively busy day trying to learn the best settings for the new track surface. […] We completed a large number of laps today, with positive aero work this morning and good tire work this afternoon. We have a lot of data to analyze in addition to the risk of rain tomorrow, so it will lead to busy engineering meetings before FP3. »
