11 Sep 2011
Today’s race in Monza was the last time we will race in Europe this year. Timo finished 15th while Jérôme had to retire after only 1 lap because of an issue with the gearbox during the formation lap.
It was a chaotic start to the race and the Safety Car had to be deployed because of a multi-car incident in Turn 1. Timo got off to a good start and avoided the mayhem, running in 14th position.
At the restart he drove a steady race and after two pit-stops brought the car home in 15th place, which provides us with plenty of data with which to confirm the initial signs that the latest upgrade has been a step forward.
Jérôme D’Ambrosio, Race Driver #25
“A really disappointing end to the weekend. I was really looking forward to the race and then during the formation lap I realised that I had no second gear. I started the race but the car was undriveable, so I had to come back into the garage and retire. It’s a real shame because today’s race looked like a close one but we just have to move on and get ready for the next race, as the initial signs from the upgrade have been positive.”
John Booth, Team Principal
“Timo had an absolutely outstanding start and picked his way through the chaos in the first corner to end the lap in 14th position. From this point on, unfortunately we didn’t quite have the pace to stay with Heikki, however Trulli’s early stop meant that at least we were racing him. We perhaps could have pitted a little bit earlier on the first stop, but overall we didn’t quite have the pace to stay in front. Nonetheless, the very fact that we are back racing with Team Lotus shows the improvement we have made for this weekend. With Jérôme, it’s very unfortunate that the gearbox failed on the formation lap. We had no indication of any issues up to this point, so we will review this back at our technical base in order to understand how this happened. We have a very busy week ahead, with half of the team moving on to an aero test in Vairano, Italy, on Tuesday and the other half will be back at base to finalise our preparations for the final flyaways. The team and the drivers are very much looking forward to heading to Singapore where, if our simulations are correct, this upgrade should yield greater gains.”
Credit: Jerome D’Ambrosio (www.jeromedambrosio.com)
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