Jump to content

litp.jpg

Lotus in the Peak
27th - 29th June 2025
  • Welcome to Midlands Lotus Owners Club (MLOC)

    Register now to gain access to all of our features. Once registered and logged in, you will be able to contribute to this site by submitting your own content or replying to existing content. You'll be able to customize your profile, receive reputation points as a reward for submitting content, while also communicating with other members via your own private inbox, plus much more!

    This message will be removed once you have signed in.

Steve J
Steve J

Edging Ever Closer - Lotus Racing Turkish Grand Prix Qualifying

Lotus Racing put in another solid performance in qualifying for the Turkish Grand Prix, with Jarno Trulli finishing the session 19th and team mate Heikki Kovalainen 20th. Jarno ran the whole session on the harder prime tyres while Heikki started on the options, but opted to change to the prime after seeing Jarno recording faster lap times, a decision that paid off with both drivers finishing ahead of their closest competition, and edging ever closer to the teams ahead.

 

Jarno Trulli (Lotus Cosworth T127-03) Qualified 19th, 13 laps, 1.30.237 / FP3 19 laps, best time 1.30.618: "I'm pretty pleased even though it was a bit of a difficult day. I had a minor problem this morning which meant I couldn't really use all the time available to focus on setting up the car, so I just got in and got on with it. In quali I used both sets of hard tyres and it felt like the track was quite slippery, particularly in the braking zones, so I changed my driving style a bit and think I did quite a good job to be best of the new teams. I think we are catching up with the guys ahead, even though we are still a bit off. But we will have another big step when we go to Silverstone, and we're also now working hard on next year's car, so we're definitely going in the right direction."

 

Heikki Kovalainen (Lotus Cosworth T127-01) Qualified 20th, 11 laps, 1.30.519 / FP3 22 laps, best time 1.30.884: "It was good out there today. On our first run we went with the soft tyre which was probably the wrong choice as it wasn't working quite as well as yesterday, but the second run on the primes was good. The car felt particularly stable around the high speed corners and the balance felt great so I'm happy. Jarno did a better time today, but I'm pushing hard - I'm always pushing to the limit and am looking forward to the race tomorrow. I feel confident, and hope we can close the gap again to the other guys ahead."

 

Mike Gascoyne, Chief Technical Officer: "I'm pleased with our performance in qualifying this afternoon. There was a question mark from this morning whether to run the prime or option tyres - we felt the car was more stable on the primes and that decision paid dividends with us being only 3.2seconds away from the Red Bulls who used the same tyres in Q1- that shows just how much progress we've made as a team from the start of the season, and that's very satisfying. So - a good solid performance today and we'll look forward to the race tomorrow where we want to get both our cars to the finish line."

 

Tony Fernandes, Team Principal: "All in all today's been another good day and it proves to me that our future is very bright. To be honest I was starting to dream about Q2, and while we may still be a little bit off that we're clearly getting closer and closer, and thinking back to where we started, that's incredible. We need to work on giving Jarno more confidence in the car, and perhaps today we could have got more from Heikki's tyres, but I think there's still more to come from the 2010 car – maybe even another 0.5 seconds. Tomorrow will be all about getting two cars home, and I know our team has the experience and strength to do that.

 

"Today we were just 3.2 seconds off the pace of the Red Bulls in Q1 and if you cast your mind back 10 short weeks to Bahrain you can see just how far we've come. There we were over five seconds away from the outright Q1 pace and anyone in the sport will tell you what an achievement it is to find nearly two seconds in just seven races. We were also just 2.4 seconds off Ferrari, celebrating their 800th race in Turkey, which is pretty spectacular for a team who are only seven races old – I think that shows to all those who expressed doubts about our participation that they were wrong. We're also now in a position to turn our attention to the 2011 car, but we're still here and fighting hard for this season – I want, in the nicest possible way, to take this fight to my mentors Frank Williams and Patrick Head and their team, from whom I've learnt an awful lot over the last few years, and compete with them and the likes of Toro Rosso and Sauber, and today's yet another example of how we really can dream of doing just that. I'm now off to order a kebab for Jarno and Heikki. Well, maybe a kebab pizza for Jarno, and a reindeer kebab for Heikki, if anyone in Istanbul can find them one....."

 

Lotus Racing has also confirmed it will be running the T127 at the Classic Team Lotus Festival at Snetterton on 20th June To read the full press release please go to: Classic Team Lotus Festival Full Press Release

User Feedback

Recommended Comments

There are no comments to display.



Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Add a comment...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


  • Formula One

    Any F1 fans on this forum? Let's discuss anything about the sport here.

    Maddox
    Maddox
    General Talk 15

    Elise S3 Brakes

    The brakes on my Elise 240 FE never felt brilliant but at 2.5 years old in the cold and wet did nothing when pressed, a few pumps later and some braking happened. I took it in and the pads (oem from new) were glazed. I replaced them with Pagid RS42 and updated fluid. Difference was night and day.  Now, a year and maybe 3500 miles on and the pedal feel is a little wooden again (like can brake light or hard but nothing in between) and they are squealing really bad at town driving  speeds and lig

    Trebor_UK
    Trebor_UK
    Technical Talk 14

    Tyre comparison - short note on v105 vs ad08rs

    Elise S2 k series with standard geometry so set up to understeer gently. Which is exactly what I've been getting on runs out. Car is on the recommended yoko v105 tyres. There a two types the ones to get have a slightly stiffer sidewall and are recommended for mercs iirc. V105 is in my experience a very competent road tyre for all seasons and daily driving. Definitely recommended. V105 thoughts coming off a no longer available very old and hard and narrower front tyre.  As normal T

    MrWill
    MrWill
    Technical Talk 17

    Boot lid hinge pin? S2 Elise

    I opened my boot today and it didn't seem right then realised it was the drivers side hinge had become disconnected from the body part. Has anyone else ever had this issue or know how to solve it?

    foxy76
    foxy76
    Technical Talk

    Litp Donation

    Hi AlI just wanted to tell you of Club member Robert Redden's (Trebor_UK ) kind donation to the LitP Rainbows Fund raiser of £100 Just how good is that A BIG thankyou Rob 👏👏👏

    Elisemadray
    Elisemadray
    General Talk 1
  • MLOC classifieds

    There have been no adverts submitted yet

  • MLOC garage

  • Member Statistics

    4,444
    Total Members
    1,800
    Most Online
    robbo101
    Newest Member
    robbo101
    Joined
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. Terms of Use