Tenth top 10 for Romain Grosjean in Singapore

On an urban circuit like Singapore, Mercedes’ engine power makes less of a difference than on other tracks. The Lotus engineers have therefore put in the hours to provide their drivers with good equipment, as Romain Grosjean acknowledges: « We had to work hard to get into Q3, both on the track and with my engineers before the session. It’s a bit of a surprise that everything went well and we got into Q3. So I am happy. »

Nevertheless, to get through Q2, he had to push hard, getting close to the walls, as he humorously explains: « I really pushed very hard today. I was quite close and in contact with some walls but I think my wife will forgive me! »

On the other side of the Lotus garage, there was much less reason to smile as Pastor Maldonado ended his session in Q1. The Venezuelan was unable to get his Pirelli tires working properly: “It was a difficult session, and we couldn’t get the most out of the tires, with which we’ve struggled all weekend. Our main problem was a lack of grip, and it was very slippery.”

Alan Permane, the operations director at Lotus, hoped that the French driver would manage to keep his position to bring back valuable points for the championship’s end: « This is a very long race where we have to consider tire degradation. It’s very unlikely that we will see any one-stop strategies. We are therefore planning on doing two or three stops. Tire management and strategy will play an important role. We hope to score good points. »