Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsLotus F1

Points for Grosjean in penultimate Lotus outing

Romain Grosjean might be on his way out of Lotus F1 Team at the end of the year, but he's enjoying getting the most out of his final races with the Enstone team.

Grosjean started Sunday's Brazilian Grand Prix from 14th place on the grid with a set of new Pirelli soft tyres before switching to a set of the prime medium compound on lap ten in what proved to be a three-stopper, the final 17-lap stint being run back on a set of scrubbed softs which made for some entertaining racing for the Frenchman.

"It was a fun race, and I enjoyed going through the field with some nice overtaking manoeuvres with our aggressive race strategy.

"It was quite hard to follow the cars but we had good power to overtake into turn 1," he added.

The strategy meant that he finished in the points in ninth position, once Felipe Massa's disqualification ahead of him had been factored in. Unfortunately Grosjean's team mate Pastor Maldonado wasn't able to follow his lead, and finished just outside the top ten after being penalised for causing a minor accident midway through.

"A great job from Romain," acknowledged Lotus deputy team principal Federico Gastaldi. "And also from all of the race team here, to work so well at what is nearly the end of a very long season."

Claiming some valuable extra points for Lotus on Sunday was a small ray of sunshine for Grosjean in a weekend otherwise inevitably overshadowed by news of the shocking events taking place back home in Paris.

"It has been an emotional weekend so it is good to be back in the points," he acknowledged, having taken part in a minutes silence along with all the other drivers before the race got underway at Interlagos.

Next, Grosjean will be heading to London next weekend to take part in the Race of Champions. Then it's on to the final event of the 2015 Formula One season, and his last outing with Lotus before he backs his case and heads to the US to join the new Haas F1 team.

"The next race will be my last one with the team and taking the chequered flag in Abu Dhabi will be very special but I will give my best to bring a good result."

REPORT: Rosberg keeps Hamilton at bay to win in Brazil

AS IT HAPPENED: Brazilian Grand Prix

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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.