Romain Grosjean says he instantly felt at home in the Lotus E21 chassis on Tuesday, explaining that the car 'feels very similar' to its race-winning predecessor. The Frenchman, who kicked off his team's 2013 testing programme at Jerez, topped the timesheets for most of the day before Mark Webber and Jenson Button moved ahead.
"The feeling is good from the E21; it feels very similar to the E20, even if it does look different from the outside," said Grosjean. "Once again Enstone has produced a car that is quick from the very first lap.
"We spent a little bit more time than ideal in the garage, but that's normal in testing. I'm happy we completed 54 laps, and even happier that all of them were quick. We now have a good idea of the new tyres and we'll have some challenges from them; the grip level is there but performance does fall away with graining."
Grosjean also stated that he he did not respond to the late front running times posted by Webber and Button, tipping the E21 to perform 'even better' on Wednesday.
"The speed came easy today and we didn't respond to the other cars going faster in the afternoon," Grosjean began to sum up. "We should go even better tomorrow."
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| Pos. | Driver | Time | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. |  J. Button | 01:18.861 | 37 |
| 2. | M. Webber | 01:19.709 | 73 |
| 3. | R. Grosjean | 01:19.796 | 54 |
| 4. | P. di Resta | 01:20.343 | 89 |
| 5. | D. Ricciardo | 01:20.401 | 70 |
| 6. | F. Massa | 01:20.536 | 64 |
| 7. | N. Hulkenberg | 01:20.699 | 79 |
| 8. | N. Rosberg | 01:20.846 | 14 |
| 9. | P. Maldonado | 01:20.864 | 84 |
| 10. | G. van der Garde | 01:21.915 | 64 |
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