Friday: Maldonado at ease, Grosjean hindered by problems at Lotus
The day was different for the two Lotus drivers: while Pastor Maldonado had two calm sessions during which he was able to work, Romain Grosjean struggled to deliver clean laps.
Pastor Maldonado (No. 13) – 8th and 9th
For the Venezuelan, it was a rather calm first day, a rarity since the start of the season: « The car was good today and we are really making progress. We did more setup work and it was great to have a day without any issues. »
« With the program we were on, I didn’t set my best times when the track was the fastest, so there is more to come from both the car and the setup improvements, » he assures, after securing two top 10s today. « I have a good feeling about this weekend. »
Romain Grosjean (No. 8) – 17th and 17th
The Frenchman’s day was not easy, due to a Lotus E22 that suffered all day from significant oversteer and braking problems: « It was frustrating because we had a few small issues that made it difficult for me to have clean stints and set a good time. It also made it difficult to fine-tune the settings to what we wanted. »
However, for driver No. 8, what is happening on the other side of the team’s garage is encouraging and gives him hope for an ideally good Saturday: « The positive is that we can see there is pace in the car with Pastor’s laps. If we can sort everything out and get my car running as it should, we could have a good result in qualifying tomorrow. »
