Lotus technical officer Mike Gascoyne expecting team’s 2011 Silverstone Q2 performance in Hungary
Lotus chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne has said that he is hopeful his team will show a performance in the upcoming Hungarian Grand Prix qualifiers similar to the 2011 Silverstone Q2.
He also mentioned that they will try to be positive from the qualifying round at the Hungaroring racetrack and put pressure on their current competitors, which included Virgin and HRT during the Hungarian race this weekend if they have good pace.
Gascoyne said, “With that in mind we may see the differences between the front of the grid and the back decrease slightly, and that could play into our hands. We showed at Silverstone that we can put our cars into Q2 using the right strategy and that may be the same in Hungary.”
He added, “We are definitely influencing the plans of the teams ahead as they cannot risk being behind us in Q1 using only the prime tyres, so hopefully we can do that again in Hungary and keep fighting the midfield pack on Saturday, and pushing on in the race on Sunday when our race pace comes into its own.”
With regards to Lotus’ performance in the ongoing season, both drivers Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen are still unable to impress on the grid.
In the recently held German Grand Prix, Trulli handed over his T128 car’s seat to Hispania Racing Team driver Karun Chandhok. The HRT driver took a good start in the Nürburgring race weekend, where he successfully finished his Friday Free Practice session on the racetrack and stayed on the grid until the end of the German Grand Prix.
The Indian driver started his Nürburgring race from the 20th place on the grid and ended up at the same position for the team.
His teammate Kovalainen had a better race weekend in Germany as compared to Chandhok. He started his race from the 18th place on the grid and finished his run in the 16th spot after struggling a lot.
Lotus driver Trulli will be back in his car at the upcoming Hungarian Grand Prix. Let’s see how both of the drivers perform over there.
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