Our belief of qualifying both through to Q3 is very realistic

Tell us about the team’s programme today?

AP: Vitaly’s first runs in FP1 were delayed as we changed the steering rack on his car after some small weeping was seen on his original rack. Bruno flat-spotted a set of medium tyres after a half spin in FP2, which meant we were unable to conduct a long run on that set.

Vitaly Petrov, Lotus Renalut F1 Team

Photo by: xpb.cc

How did Bruno and Vitaly evaluate the first two free practice sessions?

AP: Both drivers reported a lot of oversteer in FP1 but changes made through the session and in the break meant both were a lot happier in FP2. Bruno ran in both sessions with the tighter bodywork packaging which we used briefly in Singapore, albeit with modifications to aid cooling.

What impact did the upgrades to the car have?

AP: The new bodywork appears to allow adequate cooling and beneficial downforce gains however we are still analysing data to see if we will continue to use it. Bruno struggled a little with traffic and yellow flags, but looking at his first sector split he is very close to Vitaly’s pace.

How confident are you going into tomorrow’s qualifying?

AP: We’ve still got work to do – the cars are far from perfect but our belief of qualifying both through to Q3 is very realistic.