The Lotus F1 Team secured their first points of the 2015 Formula 1 season in China, with Romain Grosjean taking a well-earned seventh place, although Pastor Maldonado was forced to retire with braking issues.
Grosjean secured his first points since the Monaco Grand Prix of 2014 and his best finish since finishing on the podium in the United States the previous season. He was satisfied with his days work, and hoped he could carry the momentum from China into the next race in Bahrain.
“It’s the best we could do today and it’s satisfying to have achieved the team’s first points of the season,” said Grosjean.
“I’m proud of everyone at Enstone and at the track. It wasn’t an easy circuit for us, with a lot of front limited corners that we don’t particularly like, but we had a strong start, and most of the stints were good too.
“We’ve made a good job improving the car race after race and it’s great to finally score points. The next race could be promising too!”
Team-mate Maldonado was unfortunate to retire in China when the brakes on his Lotus began to fail, but felt his pace was good. He was happy with the battle with Jenson Button until the duo collided, but insisted it sometimes happens during a battle between two battling cars.
“I made a great start and we were running strongly early on however later I had a braking issue which made it harder to battle,” said Maldonado.
“We also have to understand why the brakes locked-up so easily coming into the pits. We lost a lot of time here and it compromised the rest of my race. It was a fantastic battle with Jenson and we were passing each other very cleanly. [It was] a good, fun, exciting battle.
“Unfortunately, it looks like he got his braking point wrong and went into the back of me. This can easily happen when you’re fighting for position, braking off-line and using DRS, so it’s just one of those things.
“Certainly our race pace is good, if we qualify a little higher we should be set for a very good time in Bahrain.”
