Lotus: A strong opening day for the Canadian GP
The E23 Hybrid showed strong initial pace.
XPB Images
Lotus F1 Team experienced a strong opening day for the Canadian Grand Prix at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Romain Grosjean was the third fastest driver in the morning session with a lap time of 1min 17.721secs, whilst in the afternoon both cars were again comfortably in the top ten for a session which was hampered by rain in the second half.
Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director - Technical programme notes:
• Both cars ran aero, set-up and tyre performance evaluation programmes in the first session.
• The second session was interrupted with heavy rainfall.
• Pirelli’s soft (yellow) compound tyre was used in the morning session, the soft, super soft (red) in the afternoon.
Romain Grosjean, E23-04
Free practice 1: P3, 1:17.721, 35 laps
Free practice 2: P7, 1:16.864, 15 laps
“The car felt good straight away and we had a set-up which worked well. It’s frustrating to lose some track time because of the rain, but it’s the same for everyone. We’ve got good potential tomorrow, hopefully we can get some decent time in FP3 then show what we’ve got in qualifying. This place holds good memories for me so it would be fantastic to have a good result here this weekend.”
Pastor Maldonado, E23-03
Free practice 1: P8, 1:18.026, 41 laps
Free practice 2: P5, 1:16.600, 15 laps
“I’m happy with today. We didn’t get the lap I wanted in the morning, but the car felt good for the dry part of the second session. We’ve got good pace on the straights and the car is working well through the slow sections too. I think we can make some extra progress tomorrow and we could be set for a strong weekend.”
Nick Chester, Technical Director: “It was a good day for us with the E23 looking well balanced straight out of the box. Romain was able to post the third fastest lap time in FP1 during the course of our normal programme which is very positive looking forward to the rest of the weekend, reinforced by both cars being comfortably in the top ten during the rain-affected second session.”
Lotus F1 Team
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