Friday Report: Team Lotus – A Laborious Start

Team Lotus experienced a Friday that mirrored its off-season: frustrating. After Karun Chandhok’s accident—in Jarno Trulli’s car this morning—very early in the first free practice session, the two Lotus T128s were hampered by technical issues that prevented them from completing a greater number of laps and driving smoothly. As a result, while the Malaysian team was more competitive than its rival Virgin, it couldn’t showcase the true potential of its car and is counting on tomorrow.

Karun Chandhok – 22nd

« Obviously, I am disappointed to have driven so little on my first day in the car, but I take responsibility for it […] it was the combination of a slippery track and less grip than I expected from the tires, which combined, eliminated me so early. I’m just glad the team was able to let Jarno drive this afternoon, and it shows that it is a great team, to have been able to repair the car so quickly to allow Jarno to accumulate the miles […] »

Heikki Kovalainen – 19th and 19th

« It was one of those days! We encountered a few problems that the guys worked hard to solve, and once those troubles were behind us, we were able to accomplish most of the program, so we have some interesting data to work on tonight. Obviously, there’s still room for the car’s potential, so let’s wait and see what happens tomorrow. »

Jarno Trulli – 20th

The team did a good job preparing the car in time for this afternoon’s session, but we had a few issues which meant I couldn’t really attack. We will work tonight on the setup options, and there are definitely areas where we can look for performance, so I think it will go better tomorrow.

Mike Gascoyne

« First difficult day in Australia even though we managed to do some good work by the end of free practice 2. At the start of the first session, Karun was caught out by the lack of grip and made a mistake that unfortunately shortened his session. In the afternoon, we had fuel pressure problems on Jarno’s car and an electronics issue on Heikki’s […] but we were able to resolve them and accomplish the majority of the planned program. For tomorrow, there is more to be exploited from the car. We are clearly not where we hoped to be in terms of performance, but we understand the reasons – it proves to be quite difficult for us to make the most of the tires – but we will work on it tonight, and as we improve, I’m sure we will get closer to our expectations in tomorrow’s qualifying.