Heading into Singapore the Lotus F1 team was more optimistic than it had been all season. Both Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado were confident the track would be better suited to the E22 and offer them an opportunity to garner some much needed points. Moreover, the past two races had offered a great deal of information about the car and Alan Permane was equally optimistic that this would be the track they would see better results for both cars.
Lotus Singapore GP Review
Heading into qualifying their optimism seemed well placed. Practice yielded an improved pace for both cars, fanning the flames of the prospect of a successful weekend. Although Pastor Maldonado said that the “The balance was quite snappy when the tyres were a bit older”, both drivers felt more comfortable and after practice had respectable positions. Romain Grosjean sat in twelfth and Pastor Maldonado (who crashed in FP1) sat in fourteenth, some of the best positions the team has retained since the season began.
Qualifying itself, however, proved much more difficult. The pace the team had enjoyed during practice seemed to have fallen by the way side, taking with it the optimism of the day before and leaving frustration in its place. Romain Grosjean’s car experienced problems with power and while he was certain the car could have done better stating, “We could have gotten up to P13 in qualifying today, the car was looking good and the team has been working very hard all weekend” he had to settle for sixteenth place. Grosjean later commented that “it’s frustrating to have had an issue on the power side… Everything can happen in the race so we will have to go for it.” He was not alone in his struggle, or his frustration, with Pastor Maldonado qualifying a disappointing eighteenth place. Maldonado also had power problems and said that they “weren’t able to finish our qualifying lap with full power”. The pace of the day before evaporated in the wake of power problems and as the team headed into the race itself, they struggled to remain optimistic.
As evening descended on the track and the heat enveloped everything and everyone, Team Lotus sat ready to run the best race they could. As the lights went off and drivers scrambled for position, both Pastor Maldonado and Romain Grosjean shot forward. Questions about the reliability of the power supply were on everyone’s mind as the cars made their way around the track, fighting the heat, the traffic, and tyre wear. Halfway through the race, a safety car came out and helped shape the strategy of the team. Many of the drivers ahead of Team Lotus pitted and, having new tyres, they quickly moved up in position, leaving Maldonado and Grosjean scrambling to make up for lost places. At the end of the day, Pastor Maldonado finished twelfth and Romain Grosjean finished thirteenth, the points they are determined to win eluding them yet again.
It was not a total disappointment, however. Maldonado said after the race that he was “pretty happy about this after the issues we had earlier in the weekend.I think we were able to do a great race today.” Deputy Team Principal Federico Gastaldi somewhat agreed, commenting that “We were very close to scoring points with Pastor and Romain. The team did a great job to both cars to finish the race after the difficulties that we had through the course of the weekend. So I’m happy.” While the cars did not fulfil the potential first seen in practice, they did run a consistent race under gruelling conditions, illustrating the hard work and dedication of the team and drivers as they continue their quest for points in the championship.
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