Sunday: Lotus F1 Still Far from the Mark in Sochi
The Russian Grand Prix of Formula 1 did not smile at all on Lotus, whose two drivers remain at the back of the pack.
Romain Grosjean (No. 8) – 17th
For the French driver, while the car was easier to drive, the start of the race was not easy: « The car was okay to drive, which was a big improvement from the previous two days and a testament to the team’s work over the weekend. The main challenge was the start of the race. It was difficult to get the tires up to temperature in the first few laps, so much so that I thought I had a puncture at the beginning. »
The highlight of the Lotus driver’s race was his collision with the Sauber No. 99: « After that, it was a quiet race except for the incident with Adrian Sutil. He was on soft tires and had more grip than me at turn 3. This turn tightens a bit on the exit and he didn’t want to go too off track. I was already at the maximum on braking, and we just touched. It looked more like a racing incident to me, but it’s not a big deal. »
Pastor Maldonado (No.13) – 18th
On the Venezuelan’s side, the situation was more complicated, hindered as he was by the lack of running on Saturday morning: We really struggled with the balance, and it made the race very difficult for us. We started with the mediums, which made progress in the first laps difficult. We then switched to softs, but even later it was hard to find grip. […] It was frustrating because we really wanted to deliver a good performance as the Sochi Autodrome is a fantastic circuit.
