The Lotus F1 Team were forced to run a limited programme during the first practice session in Hungary on Friday following a delay in receiving their tyres from Pirelli.
Teams usually receive their tyres the day before practice begins, but at the Hungaroring, Lotus took their tyres an hour before opening practice, and with the tyre warming procedures needing to be completed, this meant that neither Pastor Maldonado nor test driver Jolyon Palmer could run any significant laps.
Pirelli’s Paul Hembery revealed that it was a commercial issue that saw the delay in the tyres being issued, but he sees no problems going forward with the Enstone team.
“It’s just a commercial issue that was resolved,” said Hembery.
“It happens in life, we haven’t had any other indication that there will be other issues so going forward we expect things to go smoothly.”
Maldonado was able to complete nine laps in FP1 and finished seventeenth, while Palmer could only run four laps but did not complete a timed lap.
