Saturday assessment: Team Lotus – Ahead of Virgin but behind the others

Qualified in 19th and 20th positions, the two Lotus drivers struggled to get their tires up to temperature and have not yet been able to show the true potential of the car. However, the Malaysian team can be reassured by the fact that they are far from being affected by the critical 107% rule at the moment, even though there is still a long way to go to catch up with the pack.

Heikki Kovalainen – 18th and 19th

Unfortunately, the rear wing remained stuck in the second stint, which masked the car’s true pace. We also struggled to get the most out of the tires all weekend, but I think tomorrow’s rise in temperatures should suit the car better, and we will be in good shape to really show what we’re capable of in the race.

Jarno Trulli – 19th and 20th

« I encountered some problems with the power steering during the tests, but the team worked hard to resolve that for the qualifying, and the car seemed much better than it was this morning and yesterday. We will definitely be a lot faster when we manage to get the tires up to temperature properly, so it should be an exciting race for us tomorrow, and I think we are in good shape to push those in front whom we were much closer to in the warmer conditions during pre-season testing. »

Mike Gascoyne

The two drivers did a very good job in qualifying today, despite some issues – Heikki had a rear wing problem which meant he couldn’t improve during his second stint on soft tires, and Jarno complained of losing grip on his second set of tires -, so we clearly weren’t able to improve the car’s actual performance today. However, I think we’ve certainly taken a step forward in qualifying. We’ve struggled to get the tires up to temperature all weekend and encountered some power steering problems, but we’ve made significant progress […]. On the bright side, tire warm-up will be better in the race and I’m sure we can regain the level of performance we hinted at this winter […].