Lotus Renault GP blame components for Friday practice session failure – Formula 1 news
Lotus Renault GP drivers Nick Heidfeld and Vitaly Petrov have blamed the front suspension uprights of their cars for their poor performance in the first two qualifying sessions of the Malaysian Grand Prix on Friday.
Nick Heidfeld was the better of the two drivers as he scored the 7th and 8th places in the 1st and 2nd free practice sessions. His teammate Vitaly Petrov was unable to impress as he finished outside the top ten
in both of the free practice sessions of the day.
Both of the drivers claim that they suffered from problems with their front suspension uprights. Heidfeld says he was unable to complete a full lap with a locked tyre because of the problem while Petrov’s car spun off the track at turn 9.
“Considering that we did no real set-up work today, it's quite encouraging that I was in the top ten in both sessions. We now have to concentrate on making good progress in the final practice session tomorrow morning,” said Heidfeld.
The team’s technical director James Allison stated that both of these parts came from a previously untested batch of components due to which the components did not perform up to the team’s expectations.
“Both Vitaly and Nick suffered failures under braking in the front uprights early in the first session. As a precaution we stopped running the cars until we had understood the problem,” said Allison.
Allison added that the team has quickly established that the two failed items should be replaced and that they took a long time in analysing other potential factors for their failure at the Friday free practice sessions.
However, the team is hoping to make some ground at the final test session that is going to take place hours before the qualifying session for the Malaysian Grand Prix on Saturday.
Lotus Renault GP will be hoping for a repeat of their Australian Grand Prix performance at the Sepang circuit in Malaysia. Let’s see if they are able to pull it off.
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