Saturday: Oh rage, oh despair for Lotus!

Romain Grosjean (No. 8) – 13th and 16th

After rather promising free practice sessions, the Frenchman thought he could aim for a decent ranking, namely a place in Q2 close to the Top 10. Despite some operational problems with the rear brakes in the middle of the first qualifying session, he managed to comfortably reach the Q2 stage. Unfortunately, engine micro-cuts dashed his ambitions, which he did not fail to express by means of a heated radio communication with his track engineer.

Once calm was restored, his remarks were noticeably more positive in the interview area: “It’s rare for me to get upset, but there are times when you take all the risks and the engine suddenly cuts out on the straight, it’s frustrating. We were aiming for a 13th place and it hurts to lose positions so foolishly when the car was performing well and the guys had worked very hard up to that point. It’s frustrating, but anything can happen here for tomorrow’s race and we must give our all to do well,” he explained to the journalists present.

Pastor Maldonado (n°8) – 18th and 18th

The fiery Venezuelan once again loses ground. After being noticed yesterday due to a new accident, Pastor Maldonado finished far back in 18th place, more than a second behind his teammate at the end of Q1. But it’s worth mentioning that the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix winner also faced his share of reliability issues: « Unfortunately, we encountered some problems that prevented us from completing a qualifying lap at full power, which greatly penalized me in the last sector ».

Despite this new set of problems, he remains resolutely optimistic for the rest of the weekend: « We are usually more competitive in race pace and that is what we expect here. We have quite a few new tires, which will allow us to fine-tune our strategy. The race will be long and the gap between the different cars is close, which will give us a chance to do well. »