The Lotus F1 Team admitted before the weekend began that the 2014 car would no longer be updated, and both Pastor Maldonado and Romain Grosjean continued to struggle at Monza. Maldonado finished the Italian Grand Prix fourteenth and Grosjean sixteenth.
Maldonado made a good start and was able to take the fight to the Sauber’s that he was able to win, but fourteenth was ultimately the best he could have achieved. The Venezuelan admitted to having an uneventful race, but after the number of retirements he has had in 2014, he was happy to see the chequered flag.
“I made a good start and a strong first lap which gave me a better position than on the grid as I was able to get past the Sauber’s,” said Maldonado. “From there I tried to attack the Toro Rosso ahead of me, but their configuration for the straights was too much to overcome.
“This meant we were running at a consistent pace without any fear from the cars behind, but equally without pace in the right place to attack the cars ahead. It was quite uneventful today but good to get to the finish line.”
Grosjean made a bad start to fall to the rear of the pack, but made it up to sixteenth at the flag, surviving an assault from the Sauber of Esteban Gutierrez in the closing stages, but the Frenchman hopes the tracks to come are not so tough for the team.
“I had a dreadful start and was last by the first corner,” said Grosjean. “I was on the hard tyres for the first stint and this made it difficult to fight back. I’m not sure what happened with Esteban [Gutierrez]. He was overtaking me, but then under braking he moved over on to me. My front wing was where he was trying to be so we touched. Not too much damage for me, but he had a puncture as a result. Certainly, I don’t think the tracks we will visit next will be as challenging for us as this one has been.”
