Lotus Racing Achieves Mixed Results In Melbourne

Lotus Racing had a mixed day in Melbourne as Heikki Kovalainen completed the Australian Grand Prix in 13th position—three places away from earning a World Championship point and ahead of drivers from all other new teams. Jarno Trulli, on the other hand, failed to even make the start due to a hydraulic power pack problem.

“Our target was to finish the race and from the start we were quite comfortably ahead of the new teams”, Kovalainen said, satisfied that at least one of the two cars finished the race. However, he conceded that a different strategy might have yielded better results: “If we had stopped once more and put a fresh set of tyres on, that might have been the better way to go”, Kovalainen explained, “but our target was to finish the race and we achieved that again”.

Trulli, whose T127 car suffered from hydraulics problem like in the Bahrain GP, said “Unfortunately we couldn't start the race today because we had a hydraulic failure on the grid and, despite the team's best efforts, we couldn't fix it in time to make the race”.

Those exact sentiments were echoed by Chief Technical Officer Mike Gascoyne: “Obviously a very disappointing start—Jarno had a hydraulic power pack fail on the grid; not something we have seen before and we couldn't get it changed in time”.

Team Principal Tony Fernandes looked on the bright side of things, saying “I am disappointed for Jarno, but Heikki did us proud—three places away from a point, and he was keeping pace with most of the other cars throughout the race”. He was also quick to point out that “it is good that at this stage of the season we are already thinking about points”.

“We are in a nice position for Malaysia”, Fernandes added, setting the stage and rousing the excitement for next week's Malaysian Grand Prix. “We are looking forward to going home, and really looking forward to giving our fans something to shout about”. Enjoy the photos of Lotus Racing in Melbourne over the weekend!