Both Lotus cars saw the chequered flag in the first Austrian GP since 2003

Hot conditions and the undulating nature of the Spielberg circuit meant a number of cars experienced issues, with both Lotus F1 Team cars suffering from braking concerns.

Romain started from the pit lane following a gearbox change with new super soft tyres, pitting on laps 3 and 27 for new soft tyres. Pastor started from thirteenth position on new soft tyres, stopping for a new set of softs on lap 26 and a new set of super softs on lap 56.

Romain Grosjean (P14, E22-03): “Today hasn’t been easy. We had various issues during the race to add to our struggle for overall performance so it was quite a challenge! We stopped very early for soft tyres but unfortunately we soon experienced graining from these which made it difficult for the rest of the race. Looking at the past, the team has always managed to make a great comeback. It might be a bit of a big build-up this time, but I know that we will work hard and do all we can to fight back to where we want to be.”

Pastor Maldonado (P12, E22-01): “For me in the car it was actually quite a good weekend. We finished the race which is positive and we made the most of the package we had today. We are losing a lot of time in the slow speed corners and we need to keep improving in this area to be more like our good high speed corner performance. Unfortunately we had some brake issues from very early on in the race so I wasn’t able to fight others around me, even though it was nice to be running in the top ten during the course of the race. After that, it was a case of saving fuel and brakes to get to the chequered flag. I think Silverstone will suit us much better.”

Federico Gastaldi, Deputy Team Principal: "There are positives from today. Both cars made the chequered flag in what’s been a difficult race for many teams. Pastor and Romain really got their heads down and made the most of the cars under them and should be applauded for today’s drives. It is obvious where we are lacking against our rivals so our focus going forwards is clear.”

Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: "That was a tough race in many respects. The nature of this circuit is definitely a challenge for us and we had concerns over the brakes after the hot conditions here today. We’ve certainly learnt a lot from our return to Spielberg and our focus now turns to the familiarity of Silverstone which should suit our package far better.”

Simon Rebreyend, Renault Sport F1 track support leader: “Unfortunately that was the best result we could have expected today from our starting positions. We extracted as much as we could from the power unit in the race, both in terms of energy management and power, but we were not close enough to fight for the points. We will work with the team to be in a better position for its home race in Silverstone in two weeks.”

Lotus F1 Team