Lotus
Romain Grosjean: “We had to work hard to get into Q3, both on the track in the session and working with my engineers beforehand. It’s something of a surprise that it all worked and we made it into Q3, so I’m pretty happy. I was pushing really hard out there today; I was getting up close and personal with some of the walls, but I think my wife will forgive me!”
Pastor Maldonado: “It was a tough session and we weren’t really able to get the maximum out of the tyres, which is something we’ve struggled with all weekend. Lack of grip was the main problem out there and it certainly made things slippery for us. Tomorrow’s the race and we can certainly recover some positions, especially as we will have fresh tyres relative to the cars in front of us.”
Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: “We’ve got mixed feelings after today’s qualifying. Pastor wasn’t able to get a good enough lap to get through Q1 but on the other side of the garage Romain was able to do a terrific job to get into the top ten. Romain and his engineers worked hard since yesterday to find improvement to their car and have really made a difference with some subtle changes which have been sufficient to get more out of the super soft tyre this evening.
“It’s a very long race where there is a lot of tyre degradation to consider. It’s highly unlikely we’ll see any one-stop strategies so we’re looking between two and three stops. Tyre management, strategy and timing will all play their part. We’ve got good scope for a solid points haul.”
