Formula 1

Lotus Enjoy ‘Really Good Result’ In Hungary

2 Mins read

On a hot day in Hungary Lotus Racing enjoyed an excellent result as Heikki Kovalainen finished the grand prix fourteenth, just ahead of teammate Jarno Trulli.

The Anglo/Malaysian outfit head into the summer break consolidating their position as best of the new teams.

“A great day for the team, and a great job from everyone to get us home in 14th and 15th,” said Kovalainen. “I think that was the maximum we could have hoped for, so we're all really pleased.

“Despite starting behind Timo (Glock in the Virgin) we were confident we could overtake him, and that's how it panned out. My own race was fairly straightforward. I dropped a few places at the start but when the safety car came in I was brought straight in to pit and it worked out well as I jumped a couple of guys ahead.

“From then I was controlling my pace to the end, and making sure I didn't make any mistakes. We head into the break very satisfied with how we performed today, and that's great for the whole team.”

Jarno Trulli sounded genuinely pleased after the race, despite the fact that he finished behind his teammate. “It's a great day for the team,” said the Italian. “All weekend I've been strong, and today's two car finish shows how hard the team's been working.

“I made a very good start and managed to gain three places, and once I got ahead of Timo it was pretty comfortable staying in front. I lost out to Heikki in the strategy call during the safety car period, but that was in the best interests of the team, and as we are again ahead of our nearest rivals, we've achieved what we set out to today.”

Mike Gascoyne, the Lotus Chief Technical Officer, had praise for both of his drivers after this strong team result. “An excellent two car finish and once again we're the best of the new teams,” he emphasised. “Both drivers drove strong races and Jarno had a particularly good start.

“Once the safety car came out we made a strategy call to keep Jarno out as we knew it would be a short period behind the safety car and this was the right strategy for the team. Unfortunately this meant Jarno lost a place to his teammate, so apologies to him, but we got the call right for the team.

“Heikki drove a good strong race to the end. He was bottled up behind Di Grassi at the start, but once he'd got past he was very comfortable running to the flag.

“All in all a really good result, and a very good day for the team.”

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