Lotus upbeat after Friday test
While other teams spent Friday reflecting on their performances in Valencia, Lotus were making the most of another day of testing.
Lotus were the only team of the twelve on the grid to test from Wednesday to Friday, with others starting on Tuesday and ending on Thursday. With the track to themselves the Norfolk-based team enjoyed some good running after their first two days were blighted with power steering trouble.
In the context of the test as a whole, Jarno Trulli'd best time of 1:15.679 would have seen him place 19th overall, with team-mate Heikki Kovalainen in 20th with a 1:15.910.
Kovalainen expressed his delight at finally being able to get some real laps under his belt in the T128
"Valencia was an excellent test for me," he explained.
"Even though we had some issues with the power steering on the first couple of days you have to remember we weren't even at the first two tests last year.
"Now we have a car that was ready to go with everyone else at the first test and to be able to run today without any problems is great.
"We have been able to start looking at the balance of the car in much more detail and I've had the same feeling that I did on day one - I think we have a good car for this year and as we continue to work on it here and at the other pre-season tests we can put some proper mileage on it without the reliability worries we had last year.
"On the car itself one of the most tangible improvements from last year is the lower centre of gravity we have this year. It's a smaller chassis and we can place ballast under it much more effectively, which means the whole car feels balanced in a way we didn't experience last year."
Trulli echoed the sentiments of his team-mate.
"It was a great day for the whole team. We completed 91 laps [in total] with basically no problems and we've been able to start to get a feel for the car which was really what this test was about," he added.
"I agree with Heikki about the balance - it feels like we have a good car to work on in the next few tests and I think that we can pretty quickly get it to a point where it will give us a chance to fight with the teams ahead.
"The next test is only a few days away but I think there will be a lot more to come there in performance terms, and it will be good to get back in the car in Jerez and get more mileage under our belts," he added.
Credit: PlanetF1.com (www.planetf1.com)
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