Team Lotus team principal Tony Fernandes is overjoyed to finally secure tenth place in the championship for the second year running, officially making the team a column one oufit.
The position sees the team pick-up £22 million ($35m) in prize money, compared to just £6m ($10m) for both HRT and Virgin in 11th and 12th.
“Almost tears for me today!” He exclaimed after the race in which Heikki Kovalainen finished 16th and Jarno Trulli 18th. “I am absolutely overjoyed.
“Two years of hard work have paid off today and it was great to see both cars home safely, helping us win tenth place. The icing on the cake was beating a Renault – that meant a lot to me as I have always said the good guys do win.
“We have a fantastic little team here, and some incredible partners in GE, Dell, Intel, APC and CNN and I know how much it means to each and every person associated with us to have finished this season where we wanted to.”
The team will become Caterham F1 next season, waving goodbye to the Team Lotus moniker, which Fernandes hoped they’d done proud.
“Now we look forward to our new life as Caterham F1 Team and we say goodbye to Team Lotus. Colin – we hope we did you proud and we hope you keep an eye over us as Caterham F1 Team. We know we will do you proud there as well.”
