Lotus Racing matched their target of a double finish in their second of race of the season at Silverstone. Jarno Trulli reach the checkered flag in sixteenth place and Heikki Kovalainen came seventeenth.
Trulli had struggled to get on the track on Friday and Saturday after various reliability problems, which meant that this result was particularly rewarding.
“I finished the Grand Prix and managed to fight with the other teams after a pretty difficult weekend, so I'm very happy,” said the Italian. “It's just great for the whole team as they worked really hard with some difficult problems, but the work paid off.
“My pace felt very good, especially when you consider that I didn't have a chance to work on any set up changes, and I had to get used to the new section of the track in qualifying and during the first part of the race, so I think we all did a pretty good job!”
Kovalainen was also pleased with the team’s result, but felt that he could have done slightly better if he hadn’t been stuck behind other cars for much of the race.
“I think my pace was good all the way through the race, but there was constant traffic in front of me,” said Kovalainen. “I lost my position on the first lap, which was frustrating, as I then got held up quite a bit. I don't mind being a lap down, but it's just a shame I couldn't really push.
“Overall I'm very pleased that we managed to finish where we did and it has been a good day for the team here at Silverstone.”
Mike Gascoyne also congratulated the team on the effort they put in to the race, and was very pleased that both cars completed the race distance. “Today's been good – a strong two car finish is a great return on the all the hard work that's been put in, so well done to the whole team for that, and once again we're best of the news teams. Apologies to Heikki as we had a problem in his pitstop which dropped him behind the Virgin, but he drove a great race in the second half and managed to regain his place.
“Jarno had a very solid race to make sure we had a two car finish and keep ourselves best of the new teams. The only negative was the safety car which came at the wrong time for us, because we'd just pitted and it meant we dropped a lap down. But other than that it was a good strong Sunday, so well done to everyone in the team.”
Hazel Chapman opened the team’s new motorhome before the race this morning, a moment team principal Tony Fernandes described as ‘a real honour’. Fernandes was also very pleased with the race result. “I'm absolutely delighted,” he said. “This has been a great day – a two car finish is just what I've been wanting for the last few races, so I'm very very happy!”
