Like the majority of his F1 colleagues, Romain Grosjean heads into the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend with a heavy heart in the aftermath of Jules Bianchi's death, but the Frenchman won't be deterred from achieving a meaningful result at a venue he particularly appreciates.
"I love Budapest and I love the Hungaroring. It’s a place where I really look forward to visiting every year. It is usually sunny and hot and is just before the summer break so you give all the energy you have before you go on holiday. It is an exciting Grand Prix every year."
Grosjean has scored points on only four occasions this season with his best results back to back seventh place finishes in Malaysia and Bahrain, so the Lotus driver believes it's definitely time to increase his tally.
More than anywhere else, qualifying in Hungary is crucial, so that's where Grosjean will attempt to start building a successful race.
"It’s a tight and twisty track so you really do need a good qualifying result. We showed in 2012 that being on the front row certainly helps and 2013’s P3 wasn’t too bad either. I’ve been very quick in qualifying pretty much every time there."
Although the Hungaroring's layout may not match the Lotus' inherent qualities which appear better suited to faster tracks, Romain will dwell on some good previous runs there and race strategy to secure a good finish.
"We’ve gone well there in the past and it’s a track I like. The E23 works well and we seem to be able to extract pretty good performance from it at most tracks we visit. The Hungaroring is not a high speed circuit so it won’t play to the strength of our car through the speed traps, but we’ve worked pretty well in the low speed stuff."
"I think if we start the weekend well we could have quite a strong race and bag some more juicy points ahead of the summer break."
Click here for a classic feature looking back at the 1990 Hungarian Grand Prix
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