Saturday: Lotus reaches Q3 thanks to Grosjean
The Enstone team reaches Q3 for the first time this season. They even had the right to hope for finishing higher than 10th place.
Romain Grosjean (No. 8) – 3rd and 10th
For the first time this year, a Lotus made it into the top 10 of the qualifiers. The Frenchman was obviously very happy even though he could have hoped for better: « It’s good to be in Q3. We made good progress this weekend. Things went better this morning than this afternoon in qualifying, so we even hoped to do better. I don’t know why we weren’t as strong this afternoon as in FP3. »
He hopes to score points on Sunday: « I suffered a bit with the tires and the conditions had changed compared to this morning, but it had been a while since we were in Q3! We hope for a good race tomorrow and hope to stay in the top 10. »
Pastor Maldonado (n°13) – 6th and no time
The Venezuelan driver couldn’t participate in the qualifiers. Therefore, he will start last and is counting on a long race to gain ground: « Obviously, we are not happy to have missed the qualifiers. Tomorrow is another day and the race is very long. I remain optimistic and will do my best as always; it’s not a very good situation, but we are working very hard to keep improving. »
