Lotus Racing Seeks Silver Lining Despite Disappointing Italian GP Result

Lotus Racing lost its best-of-the-new-teams positioning in the Italian Grand Prix: Heikki Kovalainen finished in 18th place—one position below Virgin's Timo Glock, while Jarno Trulli did not manage to complete the race, retiring on the 46th lap due to a gearbox failure.

“I lost a few positions at the start, managed to get in front of di Grassi but then was stuck behind Timo. I didn't have the straight line speed to get past him so didn't have the chance to make a move”, Kovalainen lamented. “We haven't lost anything in terms of the Championship so all in all it's not too disappointing”.

“It was a very good race until the gearbox problem meant I had to stop. I lost second gear and even though I continued running without second, it gave up completely which ended the race”, Trulli said. “I was pulling away from Timo and the guys behind and was increasing the lead with every lap, and the car felt great right from the start. But this seems to be the story of the season”.

Team Principal Tony Fernandes chose to focus on the positives. “One has to be philosophical after today's race, and focus on the fact we had a very good weekend”, he said. “It's obviously disappointing that we had yet another gearbox failure on Jarno's car as he was comfortably pulling away from his nearest rivals until he had to pull over. Heikki had an unfortunate start, and that meant his whole race was compromised as he was stuck behind Timo and couldn't pass”.