Team Lotus returns to its Malaysian home for season’s second race - Formula 1
After the disappointing results of the Melbourne race, the Formula 1 Lotus team has returned to its home country of Malaysia for the season’s next race. All team members are very excited about the Sepang race because they will be racing in front of a home
crowd.
The team drivers, the technical officers and principal are all looking forward to a successful race, even though they were unhappy after their performance in Australia. At the Melbourne GP, driver Jarno Trulli managed to complete 56 laps during the course
of the race and come in the thirteenth slot. However he ended his race without any supportive points for the team.
On the other hand, Trulli’s team-mate, Heikki Kovalainen, completed only 19 laps for the team and retired from the race due to the a water-leakage issue with the car . Since both drivers were unable to score any points for the team, they are expecting very
positive results from the next race of the season.
Kovalainen told the media that the Malaysian race will be one of the toughest courses of this season because the circuit has dangerous corners. He added, “Then towards the end of the lap there's two very difficult braking points, corners where you're turning
and braking into the corner. I think its turns 11 and 13, both right handers. Getting your braking stability right in those kinds of corners is one of the key elements to making a good lap time in Sepang.”
His team-mate, Trulli, is really fired up for the Malaysian race. He said that the whole team is very busy since arriving in their home town and are preparing for the weekend in their new T128 car. Trulli went on to say, “It's still early days for us, and
while we are clearly closer to the midfield teams than we were a year ago we still have some time to make up, so I think we are all being realistic and working very hard to continue moving forward this year."
On the other hand, Lotus Chief Technical Officer, Mike Gascoyne, discussed the driver’s performance and admitted that Trulli and Kovalainen pace in their early laps were a good step forward for the team’s success. He further added that there is no doubt
that the team really worked hard against strong rivals but struggled all weekend with the Pirelli tyres.
Other than Gascoyne, team principal Tony Fernandes said that after the winter testing he thinks the team is going in the right direction and they introduced a good package this season. A few days are left in the start of the Malaysian race and all teams
have moved towards the venue for the preparation of the race.
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