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Lotus drivers pleased with progress

14 March 2010

The Lotus team was the only 2010 debutant outfit to make the finish of the Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday. With the two Hispania and Virgin cars having retired due to a selection of problems, Heikki Kovalainen was classified two laps down as Lotus elected to stop Jarno Trulli three laps from the end.

With Norfolk-based, 1Malaysia-run Lotus aiming to finish the first four races in order to collect as much data as possible before the arrival of a major upgrade for the Spanish Grand Prix, Trulli was pleased to keep going after a trip off the track following the Turn 2 drama when both Robert Kubica and Adrian Sutil spun.


"I made a good start and avoided the accident at the second corner but found myself in the gravel so at this stage I was nearly last," commented a relieved Italian. "Then I started picking up pace and catching the people in front. The car was understeering quite a lot and I couldn't really predict the balance so at the pit-stop the team, who did a really good job, changed the front wing setting and I started pushing again and putting in some good laps.

"At the end of the race I had a hydraulic problem so I just had to get it to the end of the race. I'm really happy and proud for the team because in six months every single target we have fixed we have met, so it's really good."


"It was a good race for our team," Kovalainen added. "To get both cars to the finish is a great achievement. My car didn't have a single problem, I know Jarno did and managed to nurse his car to the end, but the primary goal was to get both cars to the end and we achieved that. So far the team has reached every goal we set ourselves, so that is fantastic.

"I had a good start and was battling with a lot of guys we didn't think we'd be fighting with. My tyres were fine and the pit-stop was good but I lost a bit of time whilst letting cars past and we'll look at the strategy for Australia to work around that better. I really enjoyed driving the car, it felt really good and it was good to push. Everybody in the team should be really happy but now the honeymoon is over and we need to start working on better results."

More news

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Photos

Lotus F1
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2010 Bahrain Formula 1 Grand Prix
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Jarno Trulli
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Heikki Kovalainen
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Formula 1
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