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Romain Grosjean drove a strong and measured Bahrain Grand Prix to finish seventh whilst Pastor Maldonado endured an eventful race to finish an eventual fifteenth in the first night race of the season. Romain ran as high as third during the race, but later traffic and an induced 360° spin meant a P11 finish. Pastor suffered from a first lap puncture then had to retire nine laps from the chequered flag due to a braking issue Romain started from P10 on the grid on his qualifying soft compound tyres, changing to scrubbed soft tyres on laps 12 and new medium tyres on lap 31. Pastor started from P16 on the grid on new medium compound tyres, changing to new soft tyres on laps 10, 24 and 41. Pastor served a five second penalty in the first stop and had an engine restart on his final stop. Romain Grosjean, P7, E23-02 "It had been a tough weekend until now for me, so it was really great to get another strong seventh position. Today’s race was great, especially as there was lots of overtaking. I was really hoping to catch Daniel Ricciardo but he was too quick for us today. It was quite difficult to manage tyres, especially with the rears so I think we did a good job to make the two-stop strategy work. We only had new medium compound tyres for the race, the rest were scrubbed, so it really was a great job by the team. It was a good recovery from Friday and Saturday’s session and I’ll happily take seventh place as my birthday gift for myself and the team." Pastor Maldonado, P15, E23-03 "That was a frustrating race for me. I pushed as hard as possible at the start on the medium tyres whilst everyone around me was on the grippier soft compound rubber. Once I moved to the soft tyres I was able to set the race’s then fastest lap so things looked good with our strategy. Unfortunately the engine anti-kill triggered when I came in to make my final pit stop which cost me a lot of time. It’s frustrating as we should have finished strongly. My focus is now Barcelona where I’ve delivered very strongly in the past." Federico Gastaldi, Deputy Team Principal "Congratulations to Romain once more for a strong race and thank you to the race team for some great pit work as well as engineering over the weekend to get the car to Romain’s liking so he could deliver today. It’s thanks to the hard work of everyone at Enstone that we can score points like we did here in Bahrain. Pastor had a difficult race and we need to investigate exactly what went wrong so we can improve for our next time out." Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director "That was an excellent, straight-forward copybook race from Romain. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the pace to challenge the Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo today but we were ahead of the rest of our near rivals. We were able to complete some very quick pit stops, which helped both drivers during the course of the race. For Pastor we ran with a different strategy to most of the field, with a three-stop strategy, starting on the harder medium compound Pirellis. This looked to be working very well and Pastor should have finished around the same position as Romain however a five-second pit stop penalty and the engine-kill activating when he entered the pits extinguished any opportunity of a strong result"

The third round of the F1® 2014 World Championship competition sees Lotus F1® Team drivers Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado taking the flag in P12 and P14 As the sun set on the desert kingdom of Bahrain, The Lotus F1® Team went to battle, and a challenge it was. With Romain starting 16th on the grid and Pastor 17th, it was never going to be an easy task. Yet, once again the team unified, and attacked the job with gusto. Staving off competition, they managed to gain several places and halfway through the 57-lap race, Romain was running in P15 and Pastor in P12. A later collision for Pastor Maldonado saw him pick up a 10 second stop and go penalty and a 5 place grid penalty which will be applied during the next round of the 2014 F1 Championship, in China. A disappointing end for the team, as both cars took the chequered flag this time around. Romain finished in P12 and Pastor P14.Romain Grosjean P12 E22-03: “It's good that we didn't have any problems during the weekend and we were able to finish the race with both cars. It's not easy racing - what with the fuel management and energy recovery system – so there’s certainly more mental work going on in the cockpit. At certain points of the race we were quite quick, but then at other points we were really struggling with the rear grip. Fortunately, we now have two days of testing at Bahrain so we’ll be able to try a lot of different set-ups to try to get the car more as we want it."Pastor Maldonado P14 E22-01: “As we expected the pace was much better in the race than it was in qualifying. We were using quite an interesting strategy and were running on two stops which was working well until the incident. We will need to have a look again at what happened as Esteban seemed to be off his line coming into turn one - maybe he missed his braking point, I don't know – and by then I was in the corner with nowhere to go. For sure it's difficult to understand and I was coming out from the pits and with cold tyres. I think he was very unlucky and it’s good he jumped straight out of the car. As a team it’s a plus that we finished with two cars which is very important and now we need to learn from this race and push hard for Shanghai."Frederico Gastaldi, Deputy Team Principal: "Both drivers kept their heads down and kept pushing today. It’s clear we still have to unlock a lot of pace from this car, but we were much better with reliability here and our relative pace has improved too. It was good to see both cars at the finish of the race as this is what we need to improve the car and make it faster.” The team now head to China for the fourth round of the competition which takes place at the Shanghai circuit on the 20th April 2014.

Kimi Räikkönen took his third podium finish of the season and Romain Grosjean his first after a superb second and third place result in today’s Bahrain Grand Prix. After emulating the 2-3 result of the same result as last year, Lotus F1 Team returns to second position in the Constructors’ Championship with Kimi leading the chase of leader Sebastian Vettel from second in the Drivers’ standings. Kimi suffered from an allergic reaction before he started the race. Kimi started from P8 with used medium tyres, changing to new hard tyres on laps 16 and 34. Romain started from P11 on new hard tyres, changing to new hard tyres on lap 8, then new mediums on laps 27 and 42. Romain’s first pit stop was earlier than anticipated due to track debris in the form of a McLaren front wing end-plate being scooped up by his right-hand-side radiator intake. Kimi Räikkönen, P2, E21-03 "I’m happy for the team." “You’re never really happy if you don’t win, but I suppose second place is as close as you can get. I drove to the maximum and the car had the pace that we missed in qualifying yesterday so it was a pretty good result. We didn’t have the speed to challenge Sebastian [Vettel] today but we did have the pace to get both cars on the podium so I’m happy for the team.” Romain Grosjean, P3, E21-02 "It’s great to be back on the podium" “It’s great to be back on the podium and it’s a fantastic result for the team. It hasn’t been an easy start to the season for me, but we made good progress through the weekend and are now back to where we should be. I felt much more comfortable in the car and the result today is a deserved reward for everyone after all our hard work. It was a really enjoyable race with a lot of overtaking and a couple of tense moments along the way, so to come from P11 through to the podium is really satisfying. We’ve had consistency already, finishing every race in the points, but now it’s the big results we’re chasing and this is a very good start to that challenge.” Eric Boullier, Team Principal "I’m delighted for the whole team." "Here we are again, just like in 2012! This time around though it was much more difficult – especially after a qualifying performance which fell below our expectations – but we’ve shown flashes of pace throughout the weekend and confirmed that speed when it mattered today. The win was not quite within our reach after the start we made, but to come away with a double podium when the top six would maybe have been a more realistic pre-race target was a great performance from everybody involved. I’m delighted for the whole team here in Bahrain and back at Enstone; it’s a well-deserved result.” Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director “Both drivers did a fantastic job today. We know our car is kind on tyres so we were able to play to those strengths and rectify the disappointment of qualifying yesterday. We chose an aggressive strategy with Romain, opting for a three-stop race from eleventh on the grid, and it worked perfectly. He was able to drive aggressively when asked and conserve his tyres when needed, so we are very happy as he delivered everything we wanted from him. With Kimi we used a two-stop strategy and relied on our long run pace. Considering he was suffering from an allergic reaction before he started the race it’s a very impressive performance indeed.” Ricardo Penteado, Renault Sport F1 Team Support Leader “A great result today for the Enstone-Viry partnership, with a double podium consolidating the potential shown at the start of the season. Kimi again drove an impeccable race, while Romain’s podium was even more impressive considering that the collision with Perez near the start blocked one of the cooling ducts, sending the oil temperatures some 20°C higher than average! For the second year in a row Renault engines have locked out the podium in Bahrain, which gives a lot of positive energy for the start of the European season.”

Kimi Räikkönen set the ninth fastest time and Romain Grosjean the eleventh during qualifying for the 2013 Bahrain Grand Prix. Romain missed out on the top ten by a mere 0.06secs but will be the first driver on the grid to have open tyre compound choice for tomorrow’s race. Kimi will start from eighth after a penalty for Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton. Kimi Räikkönen, E21-03. Q: P9, 1:33.327. FP3: P4, 1:33.446 "It’s a long race so we’ll just have to see what we can do tomorrow." “It wasn’t the easiest qualifying session after a weekend which hasn’t been the easiest so far either. Yesterday it was difficult at times to find the balance with the car and I found that again today. This morning it felt good and we didn’t do too bad in free practice, but we didn’t quite get it right this afternoon. My lap wasn’t great, but it’s a long race so we’ll just have to see what we can do tomorrow.” Romain Grosjean, E21-02. Q: P11, 1:33.762. FP3: P6, 1:33.464 "We qualified in similar positions last year and came away with a double podium." “It’s obviously disappointing to miss out on Q3 but it’s just one of those things. There weren’t any issues with the car, we just tried to be a little too brave by doing just one run and unfortunately it didn’t pay off. On the positive side, we’ve found a lot of performance this weekend compared to the first three races and our pace on the prime tyres in Q1 looked very strong. We qualified in similar positions last year and came away with a double podium, so it’s still all to play for.” Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: "We’re certainly not out of it yet." How was qualifying for the team? We’re obviously disappointed with the qualifying result. We just missed the cut for Q3 with Romain who had been looking strong, but unfortunately the track evolution caught us out a little bit and he made a couple of small errors on his only lap in Q2. If this hadn’t been the case, we’re sure he would have made it through. What about Kimi? Kimi’s session was a bit more of a mystery. His second run in Q2 was pretty respectable but it just didn’t come together for him in Q3. He’s been strong all weekend up until that point, so we’ll need to trawl through the data this evening to understand what happened. What opportunities does Romain have from P11? Romain has plenty of new tyres to work with and starting on fresh rubber should give him a good boost at the start and through the first stint. We can decide which compound he will start on so we’ll be crunching the numbers to work out the optimum strategy. Are we still confident ahead of the race? We were very happy with our long run pace yesterday, with both cars showing decent pace and manageable tyre degradation levels. It’s a tough race on tyres which tends to work to our advantage and we managed a great result from a very similar situation this time last year, so we’re certainly not out of it yet.

Rebellion Racing reinforces its lead in the FIA Trophy for LMP1 teams with a double podium - 4th and 5th places overall at the 2012 6 Hours of Bahrain - 2nd and 3rd in the FIA Endurance Trophy for LMP1 Teams - Nicolas Prost and Neel Jani move to 4th in the FIA WEC Drivers World Championship After the toughest race of the season due to extreme heat and high humidity, Lotus-Rebellion Racing finishes the 6 Hours of Bahrain in fourth and fifth place overall, 2nd and 3rd in the FIA Endurance Trophy for LMP1 Teams. The 6 Hours of Bahrain saw for the sixth time in six races both Lola B12/60 Toyotas taking the chequered flag proving the high level of reliability of the Lotus-Rebellion Racing cars. In endurance racing, minor issues can have a big impact on the final race result. Along with many other competitors (including Audi Sport and Toyota Racing), Lotus-Rebellion Racing had to deal with minor electrical problems during the race that prevented the Swiss team from making it onto the third step of the overall podium. Problems with the illuminated side number panels on both cars forced the team to stop for repairs, costing precious time in the pits. The Lola-Toyota #12 car driven by Neel Jani and Nicolas Prost was strongly running in third place overall with one lap over the #21 HPD-Honda when the Race Director instructed the car to pit for repair after the three hour mark. The sister car, #13 driven by Andrea Belicchi and Harold Primat was successfully recovering after starting from the back of the grid and was P6 overall when same issue checked its progression. In these stressfull and demanding conditions, the Toyota RV8KLM engines from Toyota Motorsport GmbH proved once again their performance and reliability. Michelin provided a first class service with quick, consistant and durable tyres even with extreme heat and harsh track conditions. REBELLION Racing now heads to the 6 Hours of Fuji in Japan with the aim of securing the win in the FIA Endurance Trophy for LMP1 Teams. After the 6 Hours of Bahrain, REBELLION Racing has a 37 point lead over Stakka Racing and a maximum of 50 points is available in the last two rounds of the FIA World Endurance Championship in Japan and China. Bart Hayden Lotus-Rebellion Racing Team manager : "It could have been a slightly better result for the team, but the weekend in Bahrain has positives in many ways. We had both cars on the LMP1 Privateer podium, that rewards the hard work of the whole team. The team endured extreme conditions throughout the week, the guys made no mistakes during the pit stops and had a lot of work to do in rebulding a complete car in only 24 hours prior to the warm-up. We are closer than ever to winning the FIA Endurance Trophy for LMP1 Teams. Both cars finished the race in good condition and that is important for the next fly-away races in Japan and the USA. #12 and the spare car will fly to Fuji. The spare car will be repaired and rebuilt in Japan to race there as #13. The #13 that we raced here in Bahrain will fly to Atlanta for Petit Le Mans where it will run as #12."

#31 Thomas Holzer (GER) – Luca Moro (ITA) #32 Kevin Weeda (USA) – James Rossiter (GBR) – Vitantonio Liuzzi (ITA) Race #32 Position 4 (LMP2) Position 9 (Overall) #31 retired Great race for Lotus at the 6 Hours of Bahrain. The team showed a strong and impressive performance and achieved its best race result of the season so far. Car #32 finished the race in fourth position, just about 30 seconds off from the second place. Kevin Weeda, James Rossiter and Vitantonio Liuzzi did solid runs and were fighting for the podium. The black and gold livered Lotus LMP2 car #32 was even leading its class in the race. Car #31 had to retire because of a broken rear suspension. Luca Moro spun into the gravel and as a result, the suspension of the car was irreparably damaged. With the great result of car #32, Lotus is going to the next race with a positive feeling. Thomas Holzer, Race driver #31: “It is a shame that we had to retire due to a broken suspension on the rear. Until then, we had a good race and we could make up for some positions. It was very hot in the car at the beginning of the race, so it was very demanding to drive. We will now focus on the next round in Japan and I hope that we will have a better result there.” James Rossiter, Race driver #32: “It was a good race for us. It was the most physically demanding race I have ever done. I really enjoyed starting the race and getting into the lead in LMP2 class. I hope we will have a podium finish in one of the next rounds.”

#31 Thomas Holzer (GER) – Luca Moro (ITA) #32 Kevin Weeda (USA) – James Rossiter (GBR) – Vitantonio Liuzzi (ITA) Free Practice 3 #32 Position 3 (LMP2) Lap time 1:53.561 (Rossiter) #31 Position 9 (LMP2) Lap time 1:55.251 (Holzer) Qualifying #32 Position 6 (LMP2) Lap time 1:52.696 (Rossiter) #31 Position 8 (LMP2) Lap time 1:53.733 (Holzer) Lotus qualified sixth and eight for the 6 Hours of Bahrain. The balance of the Lotus LMP2 car is good and the team is well prepared to show a good performance in the result. It was a close fight in LMP2 class with three cars within one tenth of a second. With a bit more luck, a better result was within reach for James Rossiter in car #32. Thomas Holzer in car #31 impressed and showed his best qualifying of the season so far. The race starts tomorrow at 16:00 hours local time and finishes at night at 22:00 hours. Thomas Holzer, Race driver #31: “I am very happy about today’s qualifying result. We showed a good performance and I was just one second off my team mate in the sister car. This is a big improvement for us. It is going to be a long and tough race tomorrow, but I am looking forward to it.” James Rossiter, Race driver #32: “The third practice was good. We changed the setup of the car over night and it was better than yesterday. In qualifying, the track conditions have changed as the track temperature was lower than in the morning. It is a shame because we are just one tenth off of the third starting position. It is very close in LMP2 class and I hope that we can have a better race tomorrow.”

#31 Thomas Holzer (GER) – Luca Moro (ITA) #32 Kevin Weeda (USA) – James Rossiter (GBR) – Vitantonio Liuzzi (ITA) 1. Free Practice #32 Position 7 (LMP2) Lap Time 1:55.961 (Liuzzi) #31 Position 11 (LMP2) Lap Time 1:57.217 (Holzer) 2. Free Practice #32 Position 7 (LMP2) Lap Time 1:54.292 (Rossiter) #31 Position 10 (LMP2) Lap Time 1:55.825 (Holzer) Lotus was on track at the first day of the 6 Hours of Bahrain. The circuit was very dirty in the first practice session because a lot of desert sand was blown onto the track. In the second session at night, all Lotus drivers completed the mandatory five laps that are necessary to be eligible for the race. It was a good day for Lotus and the team could get a lot of data in preparation for the race. Unfortunately, Mirco Schultis is not able to participate in the 6 Hours of Bahrain due to illness. Everybody in the team wishes him a speedy recovery and is looking forward to seeing him back in the car at Fuji. Luca Moro, Race driver #31: “I enjoyed being in the Lotus LMP2 car today in Bahrain. The track was very dirty and dusty because of the sand that is coming from the desert. It was tricky to drive but we fulfilled our program and completed the mandatory five laps at night, so we are eligible for the race. It is a shame that Mirco Schultis is not here this weekend, so it will be Thomas Holzer and me in the car. Best wishes to Mirco and I hope that he is getting better soon.” James Rossiter, Race driver #32: “Today we did some long runs and learnt a lot about the tyres. We will analyze the data and work on the strategy for the race. There is still room for improvement tomorrow and we will work hard to have a good result.”