Saturday: Lotus Bets on Long Stints to Straighten the Course
As expected, Lotus had a tough qualifying session. While the Black and Gold team avoided a complete disaster, Pastor Maldonado only managed 14th place and Romain Grosjean 16th. However, the drivers remain hopeful for the race.
Pastor Maldonado (No. 13) – 12th and 14th [13th on the grid]
With a 14th place in the regular standings (13th with Pérez’s penalty), the Venezuelan driver still finds positivity in the day: « We will start from 13th place on the grid tomorrow, which is always good to take. I think we have greatly improved compared to yesterday, during which we experienced problems with the power unit. It was a good last lap for our current package, even though we are not where we want to be ».
Pastor Maldonado thinks he has the means to surprise opinion tomorrow with his Lotus on long stints: « I can’t wait for tomorrow. Our pace improved today and we showed that we have potential on long stints, so hopefully we’ll have a good race on Sunday ».
Romain Grosjean (no. 8) – 14th and 16th [15th on the grid]
As for Romain Grosjean, faster in Q1 after an excellent lap, he couldn’t replicate his performance in Q2 to achieve the 16th time. « It’s not betraying a secret to say that we have encountered many difficulties so far this weekend. It’s a tough weekend, and our pace with low fuel hasn’t been good as we saw today ».
However, like his teammate, the French driver believes that the Lotus will show a better performance over the distance, even if overtaking proves to be difficult: Yesterday, we showed a good pace with a lot of fuel, which we will need to use as best as we can during the race. Overtaking will certainly be tricky, as our top speed hasn’t been one of our main strengths this year. But we will have a good strategy or perhaps a shortcut on the track to help us during the race!
