Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsLotus F1

Palmer to make Lotus debut

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Jolyon Palmer will drive for Lotus for the first time at the second pre-season test at Barcelona this week.

The GP2 champion tested for Force India during the Abu Dhabi test at the end of last season, but failed to secure a role with the team for 2015. He was subsequently named as third driver at Lotus, with Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado staying on in the race seats.

Lotus has now announced that Palmer will make his debut in the E23 during the second test, driving the car on Friday. Maldonado will drive on Thursday and Saturday, while Grosjean takes over for the final day on Sunday.

The test will only be Palmer's second run in a Formula One car, following his Force India test last year. The Briton beat McLaren young driver Stoffel Vandoorne and new Sauber driver Felipe Nasr to the GP2 title last season.

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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.