Lotus lost everything at the end of the race in Singapore
Although until a few laps before the end both Lotus drivers were in the points, Pastor Maldonado and Romain Grosjean had to settle for 12th and 13th place finishes.
Romain Grosjean was thrilled with his qualifying and hoped to turn his top 10 grid position into valuable championship points. However, things got complicated right from the start when Max Verstappen got stuck on the grid. The Frenchman was right behind and therefore lost speed and positions from the first corner: « I lost a lot of places on the first lap. I was sliding a lot, and we knew it wasn’t a track for us, like Hungary and Monaco. We knew it would be difficult. »
To compensate for their weakness, the Lotus men had therefore implemented an aggressive strategy. However, with a virtual safety car as early as the 13th lap, this strategy was compromised since the other drivers were able to pit without losing time: « We had an aggressive strategy for today. It was going well since we climbed up to 8th place. But the first VSC cost us dearly. »
However, the Frenchman could still hope to score a small point until three laps from the end. But tires at the end of their life and concerns about his gearbox pushed him to pit on the last lap, once Felipe Nasr was able to pass: “The tires were completely destroyed at the end of the race. As soon as we were out of the points, we decided to retire because we had concerns about the gearbox and didn’t want to risk a penalty in Japan.”
Pastor Maldonado’s race was also eventful, particularly with a new collision. This time, the Venezuelan made contact with Jenson Button during the last restart: « *The contact with the McLaren was light but enough to break my diffuser. I was defending on the inside and I don’t know where Jenson wanted to pass me. It’s a very tight corner and there was no chance he could overtake me.* »
If he was able to continue his race, his single-seater was damaged and he couldn’t compete against the return of the Toro Rosso and even the Sauber: « The damage made me lose performance at the end of the race when we wanted to manage our tires. Unfortunately, it was not possible to maintain our pace and preserve our tires. So we had to make an additional pit stop. »
