Sunday: Petrov saves the points for Lotus-Renault GP
With Bruno Senna's good qualification on Saturday, the Lotus-Renault GP team expected a better result this afternoon. Ultimately, only Vitaly Petrov, who started behind his teammate, managed to finish in the points with a modest 9th place.
Vitaly Petrov – 9th
I think I made a big step forward with the car today, and it shows in the fact that I stayed in the top 10 throughout the race, quite close to the Mercedes. We must continue to work in this direction.
Our strategy was the right one even though we lost quite a bit of our top speed, which made my overtakes rather difficult.
The car was very strong in corners and very good in braking despite some issues towards the end. This forced me to drive differently in the last laps, and I unfortunately had to stop just after the line because I no longer had front brakes.
I am, however, quite satisfied with my performance this weekend.
Bruno Senna – 13th
Unfortunately, I made a mistake in the first corner that jeopardized my chances of staying at the front until the end of the race. So first of all, I would like to apologize to Jaime Alguersuari for this incident.
This mistake at the first braking left me at the back of the race for quite a while, and I paid the price for it by receiving a penalty.
Of course, I would have liked to finish the race in a better position given my good place on the starting grid, but I nevertheless have a good pace and I will be able to calmly look forward to Monza, which is another one of my favorite circuits.
Now, we will sit down and learn from our mistakes, but the foundations are there.
Eric Boullier, Director
I have mixed feelings about this race because we suffered from a very bad first corner which prevented us from scoring more points. After highlighting that, Vitaly and Bruno had a respectable race and we will surely learn a lot from this weekend. The most important thing is to be back in the points thanks to Vitaly’s 9th place.
It is important to see that we have kept up the pace, and it’s a clear indication that we are holding our heads up a bit after a few difficult races.
This race gives us a good foundation heading to Monza, and I am proud to see that the team’s spirit is better than it has been recently.
