Lotus Racing Beats A Williams In The Chinese GP

Lotus Racing had yet another bitter-sweet race in the Chinese GP, where Heikki Kovalainen finished in 14th position, one position ahead of Williams' Nico Hulkenberg, while Jarno Trulli's bad luck continued as he once again retired due to hydraulic issues.

Kovalainen attributed his good run to a great decision to stay out on slick tyres early on. “The decision to stay out early on dry tyres was made by me and the team together”, Kovalainen said, “it wasn't wet enough to come in, and as soon as the race started I could see the rain had calmed down, so we agreed it was the right call to stick with the plan”.

Lotus Racing Boss Tony Fernandes was elated that Kovalainen raced a Williams and won no less. “I'm really happy today as we've accomplished what we said we'd do. We wanted to see at least one car cross the line for the first four races, and we've done that”, Fernandes said, adding “it's very satisfying, and shows how we're progressing that today we were racing Williams, who we beat on track”.

Mike Gascoyne, Lotus Racing's Chief Technical Officer, had words of comfort for the unlucky Trulli. “Whilst I'm obviously pleased I want to say first how disappointed I am for Jarno”, Gascoyne said. “He's had a lot of bad luck so far—it seems all our bad luck has been on his car, so apologies to him, but it was a fantastic race from Heikki”.

“These first four races were always going to be tough”, Gascoyne added, “but we've achieved what we set out to do and now we're looking ahead to Barcelona and seeing how the updates we've been working on help us move forward”. Enjoy the mega gallery of the entire F1 event in Shanghai!