Lotus Praga Lmp2 First Day At The 6 Hours Of Silverstone

#31 Kevin Weeda (USA) – Vitantonio Liuzzi (ITA) – Christophe Bouchut (FRA)

#32 Thomas Holzer (GER) – Dominik Kraihamer (AUT) – Jan Charouz (CZE)

Free Practice 1

#31 Position 9 (LMP2) Lap time 2:13.413 (Bouchut)

#32 Position 10 (LMP2) Lap time 2:18.283 (Holzer)

Free Practice 2

#31 Position 9 (LMP2) Lap time 1:59.423 (Liuzzi)

#32 Position 10 (LMP2) Lap time 2:23.886 (Charouz)

The new season of the FIA World Endurance Championship started off today with two practice sessions and Lotus Praga LMP2 was underway with its two Lotus Praga T128 LMP2.

The changing weather conditions made it impossible to do reasonable lap times. After numerous rain showers, the sun came out for some minutes and the track dried up until there was rain again. Nevertheless, Lotus took the opportunity to learn about the car under different conditions. The team hopes that the weather will be better for tomorrow’s qualifying. The qualifying format has been changed for this season. Two drivers from each car must set at least two timed laps during qualifying. The average of the four best lap times (the best two lap times of each driver) will serve as the reference time for establishing the grid. The debut of this new format is going to be interesting and will ensure that there will be a lot of track action.

The qualifying to the 6 Hours of Silverstone will start on Saturday, 13th April at 12:10 hours local time.

Christophe Bouchut, Race Driver #31:

“It was an interesting first day at Silverstone and I was happy to drive the new Lotus T128 today. There is still some work to do, but we learned a lot about the car, which will help us to find the right setup for the next days. The team is doing an incredible job and I am very happy to race with Lotus.”

Thomas Holzer, Race Driver #32:

“It was an amazing feeling to drive the Lotus T128 for the first time. There is a lot of potential and we are working hard to get the best out of the car. In the first practice session, we had some overheating problems due to the long pit lane and running in the pit limiter for a long time. Nevertheless, I am looking forward to tomorrow, when hopefully the weather conditions will be better than today.”