Lotus, Grosjean: “An excellent feeling with the car”

Eighth and eleventh place for the two Lotus, respectively of Grosjean e Maldonado, in Qualifications of the GP China. Thanks to the best time of 1:37.905 – more than 2 seconds faster than the pole time of Hamilton – the French driver managed to place his E23 after the small group formed by the "usual suspects" of Ferrari, Williams and Red Bull. On his last lap during Q3, the Venezuelan suffered a bit of understeer, thus narrowly missing out on entering the top ten.

“It was a very close qualifying session,” he commented Grosjean, “and at the same time very exciting to experience and I think also to watch for the audience at home and in the stands. Compared to Friday we made some adjustments, which allowed me to find a good balance, the best possible at the moment I would say. It will be a long race tomorrow and paying maximum attention to the left front will be the key to a good performance. I'm enjoying driving this car, on which we've found an excellent set up for me."

“I expected to fight in Q3 but this weekend so far has been tougher than expected compared to the first two races,” he said Maldonado at the end of the day. “We struggled both on Friday and today to find the right balance and for this reason I'm not totally sure I can push as much as I would like on this type of track.
Having said that, I'm still looking forward to tomorrow, given that we are usually stronger in terms of race pace. This means that we will be more competitive than in Qualifying, and ready to go after important points."