Lotus’s Mike Gascoyne says he is pleased with the teams progress at this stage of the season as the new team begins to challenge the established teams.
Whilst points may be a few races, or even a season or two away, Lotus has managed to close the gap to the backmarkers, notably Sauber and Toro Rosso.
Kovalainen qualified just over two tenths behind Kamui Kobayashi, six tenths behind De la Rosa and under a second behind both Toro Rosso’s. A significantly smaller gap than that of the opening races of the season.
“It was a big step forward. Instead of trying to be the best of the new teams, we are trying to get on to the back of the established teams,” Gascoyne told the BBC.
“That’s exactly where we wanted to be at this stage of the season. This weekend marked a big turning point for us as a new team.”
Jarno Trulli didn’t have the best race after retiring on lap 46 however Kovalainen finished ahead of Vitaly Petrov and the remaining newcomers, although of them, only Karun Chandhok made the checkered flag.
“We were racing throughout the race with the midfield teams. OK, some of them had got delayed but we were genuinely racing them,” said Gascoyne. “And we lapped all the other new teams.”
Lotus will celebrate their 500th grand prix in Valencia where they hope they can continue their development rate and once again challenge the established order.
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