Lotus set the seventh and twelfth fastest times at Interlagos

Lotus F1 Team set the seventh and twelfth fastest times in the first day of running for the Brazilian Grand Prix at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace at Interlagos, São Paulo.

A dry morning session gave way to a mildly moist start to the FP2 afternoon session with Jolyon Palmer and Pastor Maldonado in action in the morning, Pastor Maldonado and Romain Grosjean in the afternoon. Pirelli’s medium (white) and soft (yellow) tyres were in use.

Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director - Technical programme notes

• Pastor and Jolyon completed full run programmes in the morning, including Jolyon conducting back-to-back front wing evaluations.
• Romain and Pastor ran through tyre evaluations in the afternoon, with some very mild precipitation at times.
• Pirelli’s medium (white) compound was used in the morning, the medium and soft (yellow) in the afternoon.

What we learned today:

• The E23 Hybrid seems pretty happy in all configurations here.

Jolyon Palmer, E23-04

Free practice 1: P12, 1:15.352, 33 laps

“It is an awesome track. There are a lot of blind corners and walking around it yesterday was an eye-opener as I have never raced here before. It is really good to drive. It felt pretty hot in the car and the tyre performance was dropping off quite quickly, but it was a great experience. We had a productive morning including trying the latest front wing so it’s been a positive day.”

Romain Grosjean, E23-04

Free practice 2: P7, 1:13.634, 45 laps

“It was pretty hot out there and you really felt it in the car! We had a few areas to work on with the set-up in the afternoon, but P7 on the board is pretty good for us at this stage in the season. It’s a great track that I really love and you forget just how good it is till you get out there and put in a lap. I’m really looking forward to qualifying.”

Pastor Maldonado, E23-03

Free practice 1: P10, 1:15.192, 31 laps
Free practice 2: P12, 1:14.124, 42 laps

“There’s more to come from the car but we clocked up a lot of laps today so we can make some good progress on the set-up before tomorrow. It’s a short track but we really put in the laps in the afternoon. It’s always great driving this track.”

Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: “That was a decent day for us. We completed good run programmes in both sessions and the E23 looks good in all the configurations we evaluated. Romain showed promising pace in the afternoon and there’s more to come from Pastor. We’ve got some progress we can make overnight so tomorrow will be an interesting day.”

Lotus F1 Team