Saturday: Grosjean achieves the goal of reaching Q2 for Lotus F1
The ban on FRIC has strongly impacted a single-seater that didn't need this right now. Under these conditions, Romain Grosjean achieved the modest goal of at least making it into Q2 during the qualifying for the German Grand Prix. This was not the case for Pastor Maldonado, who could not do better than 19th.
Romain Grosjean (No. 8) – 16th and 15th [14th on the grid]
The French driver had to adapt to a car that no longer benefits from interconnected suspensions, a system invented by the team in 2009: « It’s not ideal to be outside the top 10, but the car didn’t behave too badly. We only lost a bit of downforce. The team was one of the first to have interconnected suspensions. Removing them is therefore a big change. »
Under these conditions, he is satisfied with passing into Q2: « We had set ourselves the goal of reaching Q2 and we succeeded. The guys worked really well. »
For the race, he believes he cannot back down and that everything can be to his advantage, even if the points seem out of reach: « For tomorrow’s race, the weather might change: anything can help us. So we will take the situation as it is and try to make the most of it. »
Pastor Maldonado (No. 13) – 18th and 19th
The Venezuelan seems to be much more affected by the change in his single-seater than his teammate: « We are still working to regain the performance lost with the change of our suspensions. I think we can regain that pace, but it clearly affects us. We need to look at all the details of how the suspension works and how it affects the aerodynamics. We are working hard to put everything together and we should be able to gain a few tenths that will allow us to get back to a position from where we can fight. »
The race does not appear to be the best possible: « Tomorrow’s race will be long and could be difficult, but we will continue to push as always to get the best possible result. »
