Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsLotus F1

Lotus finally emerges at Jerez

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The new Lotus E23 ran for the first time on Monday morning at Jerez after an overnight car build in Spain.

The team's 2015 car didn't arrive at the circuit until Sunday evening having missed the whole first day of running. With the car rebuild taking place overnight and in to Monday, Lotus originally announced that "the first significant running [is] expected for Tuesday February 3". However, the car was ready to run before 10:30 on the second day of testing, with Pastor Maldonado taking it out for an installation lap.

Technical director Nick Chester explained that the team had simply run out of time to get the car built at the factory before flying it out to Spain.

“We have been pursuing a very tight and aggressive build programme with the E23 Hybrid which is one of the most technically advanced cars to have come out of Enstone," Chester said. "We will take to the track with this car as soon as we are ready from an engineering perspective.

"We’ve fired-up the car at Enstone and we’re now putting everything together ahead of the first laps on track. Everyone at Enstone is very positive with what we’ve seen of the E23 Hybrid so far and we’re looking forward to it turning its wheels in anger for the first time later this week.”

Follow Jerez testing live here

Click here for the full gallery of the new Lotus E23

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.