Team Lotus‘ Mike Gascoyne said that Friday in Turkey was ‘pretty good’ as drivers Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen finished the day 17th and 19th on the timesheets.
Heavy rain this morning limited running for the team has Trulli and reserve driver Karun Chandhok took to the track. However, once the track dried, the team could stick to their practice programme with the two race drivers.
“A pretty good day,” said Gascoyne, the Chief Technical Officer, in summary. “Obviously we had limited running this morning in the wet conditions as we wanted to save tyres in case we have to use wets in the race. Unfortunately that limited the running Karun and Jarno could do but this afternoon we completed the whole program without any real problems with the performance levels we showed I think we are looking at having a pretty good weekend.”
Trulli, who was in the car for both sessions today, completed 46 laps, 40 of which were done in the afternoon. “I’m pleased in general with today,” said the Italian. “It’s been a positive, trouble free day and we managed to run through a number of options that give us a good direction for tomorrow and the race.
“We have made an adjustment to the power steering and that’s definitely improved things in the cockpit for me but there’s more to come from that and the whole car so I think we can go into tomorrow in good shape.”
Chandhok, whose last appearance in the Lotus was a forgettable first-lap crash during FP1 in Australia, managed six laps in the rain morning. He is enjoying life within his new team.
“The wet weather meant we limited the morning runplan but despite that it was good to get back out on track,” said the Indian driver. “I didn’t get a chance to push but I’m enjoying working with the team and the more time I spend with everyone the more I can see how far this team can go. There’s a great spirit across the whole garage, and back in the factory, and with the constant progression towards the midfield this is a great place to be working in.”
Kovalainen, who sat out the morning session, was not quite as happy with how Friday had gone: “That was a reasonable session for me – I had a DRS issue that definitely cost me some time but I think the balance was pretty good and we got through some decent setup work so I think we’ll be ok tomorrow.”
