Lotus Racing Achieves Goal Of Finishing Race In Bahrain

Lotus Racing has had a good start in the Bahrain F1 season opener: both racing cars managed to finish the race, and Lotus Racing was the only new team to have a car at the chequered flag with Heikki Kovalainen in 15th position. Jarno Trulli was classified as 17th after encountering a hydraulics problem late on. The results had the entire team all fired up for the rest of the season, and the people at the top singing the praises of the drivers.

“I'm very very proud of the whole team. Everyone here, and back in Hingham”, said Chief Technical Officer Mike Gascoyne. “Firstly I have to say thank you to both drivers. They drove great races—Jarno struggling early on but when he changed to the soft tyre he was much more competitive.

“Apologies to Heikki because he may have suffered from the strategy, and apologies to Jarno because he had a hydraulics problem and he had to slow down to get the car to the finish, but overall a great result”.

But it was Team Principal Tony Fernandes who was the more ecstatic. “I'm completely over the moon! I cannot describe the feeling”, Fernandes exclaimed. “Six months of work and to have both cars finish is just unbelievable. We're thrilled, we're happy and the spirit in the team is fantastic.

“I'm really proud of Jarno and of Heikki and everyone here. It's a great start and better than I could have dreamt of. We wanted to finish the race and to do so ahead of established teams is fantastic”. Enjoy the gallery of photos of the events in Bahrain over the weekend!