Romain Grosjean scores Lotus’s first points
Romain Grosjean managed to score his first points of the season with a fine seventh place in Shanghai. As for Pastor Maldonado, he was forced to retire following his collision with Jenson Button.
The French driver finally finished in the points, something that hadn’t happened since Monaco last year. He could only be pleased at the end of the race: « It’s the best we could do. It’s satisfying to have scored the team’s first points of the season. I’m proud of everyone at Enstone and on track. It wasn’t an easy circuit for us, one we don’t necessarily like. We had a good start, and most of the stints went well. »
Pastor Maldonado’s race was more eventful as the Venezuelan had brake issues, causing him to lock up his tires at the pit entry: « I had a very good start and we were attacking at the beginning of the race. However, I had a brake problem, which made it more difficult for me to attack. We need to understand why the brakes locked so easily when entering the pits. We lost a lot of time and that compromised the rest of the race. »
He then had a very nice battle with Jenson Button, which unfortunately ended badly with a collision. However, he doesn’t hold it against the British driver: « It was a fantastic battle with Jenson, and we overtook each other several times in a very clean way. A beautiful, exciting, and fun battle. Unfortunately, it seems he missed his braking point and hit me. That can easily happen when you’re fighting, braking off the clean line using DRS. It happens. »
