Objective Q3 and points for Renault in Japan
After a catastrophic weekend in Singapore, the Lotus Renault Grand Prix team hopes to bounce back at Suzuka and is confident it can do so. The objective for the Japanese weekend is the same as usual: qualify in Q3 and score points in the race.
The LRGP team wants to bounce back at Suzuka after the debacle suffered in Singapore. The British team hopes to fight again in the top 10 in Japan, which was far from possible in Singapore. The goal for Vitaly Petrov and Bruno Senna will be to qualify in Q3 at Suzuka, as desired by Eric Boullier, the team director.
« Things should be better for us on faster circuits (than Singapore) and Suzuka is one of those circuits. In Japan, we expect to be back at the performance level seen in Belgium and Italy. Our mission will be to focus on getting both our cars into Q3. Then, from there, the weekend should be quite straightforward, » said Eric Boullier.
The French manager also revealed that the weaknesses of the R31 on slow circuits have been known for a while and that there is nothing that can be done to change things for this year. However, the team aims to resolve this issue with the R32 for 2012.
The objective in the race will then be to maintain these top 10 positions to score significant points, in order to continue to stay ahead of the Force India team, which has made a strong comeback after their impressive performance in Singapore – with Sutil and di Resta both finishing in the points.
«My main objective is to add points to my name. If we can add a bit (of performance) to the car here and there, it will help. We need to stay ahead of the teams behind us, especially Force India. If we could close the gap with Mercedes GP, which is fourth, it would be a real additional source of motivation for the team, but first we need to focus on maintaining our fifth place, » said Bruno Senna.
