FP1 & FP2 - Abu Dhabi GP report: Lotus Mercedes

Lotus F1 Team set the tenth and 15th fastest times in the first day of running for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at the Yas Marina Circuit. With both sessions conducted in the afternoon, Pastor Maldonado and Jolyon Palmer ran in FP1 with Pastor and Romain Grosjean in FP2. A water leak with Jolyon’s car in FP1 precluded extensive running whilst a fuel tank related issue impacted on Romain’s FP2. Pirelli’s soft (yellow) and super soft (red) tyres were in use.

Jolyon Palmer

“It was good to get even just a handful of laps today and the crew did a great job to get the car fixed. When I saw the car stripped down before FP1 I certainly didn’t expect to be lapping before the end of the session. I pushed hard for the laps we had and I did have a bit of a spin, but no harm done.”

Romain Grosjean

“It’s been a frustrating day as time in my car was limited in both sessions and with me only driving FP2 we’re quite a bit behind where we hoped to be. We have quite a bit of work on the set-up to get it to my liking. Everyone at the track has worked really hard over the past 36 hours and I want to be able to give them a great reward tomorrow.”

Pastor Maldonado

“Today was pretty straight forward and we’ve made good progress. We’ve completed a pretty full programme and we know where we want to go with the car. There haven’t been any surprises for us today so we’re pretty happy and looking forward to tomorrow.”

Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director

“We’ve displayed quite reasonable pace here today which is a credit to all of the crew who have worked in a very tight timeframe. Jolyon was able to complete a handful of laps despite a water leak from his car delaying his track time whilst Pastor was able to set solid laps straight out of the box and his side of the garage had a solid day. Romain’s car experienced a fuel tank related issue and he wasn’t happy with his car, but there’s nothing we shouldn’t get rectified for tomorrow.”