A small point for Romain Grosjean and Lotus in Mexico
After two consecutive retirements, Romain Grosjean returned to the points at the Mexican Grand Prix with his tenth-place finish. He was ahead of Pastor Maldonado by less than a second.
The battle was tight between the two Lotus drivers who followed each other throughout the race. Although the Venezuelan managed to gain the upper hand at the start over his teammate, he couldn’t maintain his position after losing time in the pits during his first stop: « I had a good start but we lost time during the first stop. It was quite difficult at the end trying to overtake. I was a few tenths faster than Romain but it’s difficult to pass here. I missed my braking at turn 12 but my battle to beat him was lost in the pit traffic. »
If the South American was disappointed, the satisfaction was evident for the Frenchman: « It feels good to score, even if it’s just one point! It was a long, difficult race, and there were a lot of things to manage. »
However, the Frenchman had to finish the race with soft tires that were not particularly suited to his Lotus: The car was good with medium tires, less so with the soft ones. With the safety car, it was too risky not to pit, and that meant finishing the race with the soft tires.
Alan Permane, the track operations director of the team, could therefore be pleased that his drivers fought cleanly, without any collisions: “Both drivers drove very well, intelligently. They were on the same level throughout the race. Pastor lost time in traffic during his first pit stop. Otherwise, the final positions might have been reversed, but he and Romain had a clean race at every moment.”
