Lotus Racing Outperforms A Renault In Canada

Lotus Racing has had a good racing day on the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in the Canadian Grand Prix, where Heikki Kovalainen finished in 16th, ahead of Renault's Vitaly Petrov. Jarno Trulli, however, retired on lap 42 due to a problem with his Lotus' brakes.

“It's been a great weekend, and I'm really pleased for the whole team with the result today”, Kovalainen said. “We finished ahead of Petrov and lapped the other new guys, and although it was hard work managing the tyres, it's still great to show what we can do”.

Trulli, who showed quick pace from the start till the retirement, chose to focus on the positives from the race. “It's such a shame I had to pull over—I had a great start and then I was really flying during the race.

“We got the strategy right on the tyres, and my pace was good—I was keeping up with the boys in front, and I was overtaking our other rivals”, Trulli described. “But then I felt a vibration that caused a problem with the braking system and I had to pull over”.

Chief Technical Officer Mike Gascoyne was also in an upbeat mood, pointing out Trulli's excellent pace before his forced stop and how Lotus Racing was competing with the more established teams instead of just the newcomers.

“Rather than being just one of the new teams, we actually got stuck in and raced the teams ahead”, Gascoyne said. “In the end we lapped both of the other new teams, so it was a great effort, and again, well done!”