The Lotus Renault R31 is increasingly reliable
Vitaly remained at the helm of the R31 for the second day of testing in Barcelona. By completing 115 laps of the circuit, he demonstrated the true progress of the car in terms of reliability. He finished in third place behind Sebastian Vettel and Sebastien Buemi.
Summary of the day:
The team improved their understanding of the forces acting on the tires by mounting sensors on the wheels this morning (see photo below).
Vitaly Petrov formed a real impression of the car through long runs, successfully completing a race simulation this afternoon. He used both hard and soft tires on this occasion.
**Vitaly Petrov – 3rd of the day:** I’m very happy with what we accomplished today. I was able to learn a lot about the car and the tires. We spent the morning doing short runs, working on the settings. By the end of the morning, I was really satisfied with the car’s behavior. But the most important thing was to complete a race distance, which we managed this afternoon. It’s the first time I’ve been able to do long and consistent runs and learn so much about the tires.
Technical notes of Alan Permane
A good day for us. We gathered quite a bit of information this morning. Then we worked on the setups and finally completed a race distance this afternoon.
The work on adjustments today focused on the rear suspension. We made various changes this morning and found good areas to work on.
Tomorrow, Vitaly Petrov will continue his work while Nick Heidfeld will take over from the Russian in the late afternoon to set up the car for the following day.
