Saturday: Grosjean without grip, Maldonado unreliable at Lotus F1
The two Lotus drivers were unable to make it to Q3 in Sochi this afternoon. The reasons were a lack of grip and power. The end of the tunnel still seems far for the team, which is struggling to solve its reliability issues.
Romain Grosjean (No. 8) – 16th and 16th [15th on the grid]
Another difficult qualifying session for the French driver who unfortunately didn’t have time to warm up his tires. Today, it was a real battle to find grip, which made the car hard to drive. It was a shame because the track is enjoyable to drive on, and we just needed that little extra grip to be able to push harder. The track surface is very smooth, so we need to work on getting the tires up to temperature, and this only happens after a good number of laps.
Pastor Maldonado (No. 13) – 21st and 20th
Absent during the 3rd free practice session this morning due to technical problems, Pastor Maldonado did not have the opportunity to make improvements to his car for qualifying: « We had a lot of problems today and therefore very little time on the track. We missed the chance to see how the track had changed and to make improvements to the car. On the track, the car was working really well when we didn’t have problems, but clearly the pace wasn’t there. Tomorrow, we will start from the last position on the grid, so everything has to be redone. »
