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Singapore played host to the 2012 GP2 Championship season finale and despite the best efforts of team and drivers, Lotus narrowly missed out on taking the team’s championship title. Going into the final race on Sunday Lotus GP was just two points away from the lead, however, a second placed finish from Esteban Gutierrez was not quite enough to get the job done. Qualifying third on the grid in a shortened session and finishing a brilliant second in race one and securing his seventh podium finish of the season, Esteban was confident of a strong result in the final race of the season. However, try as hard as he might, he was unable to get past the new 2012 champion, Davide Valsecchi, and crossed the line in sixth place. This finish saw the Mexican racer secure his goal of finishing on the drivers’ championship podium (third). Teammate James Calado was suffering from food poisoning in race one that resulted in a visit to the hospital later in the day, had a tough weekend. Despite a brilliant drive on day two, while still suffering the effects from the day before as well as starting from the back of the grid drove to tenth place at the finish, but his gallant efforts didn’t reward the team with the much deserved points needed to take the coveted 2012 teams championship crown. James finished the season on the fourth rung of the drivers’ championship. This was an extremely complex season for Lotus GP where they had to come to grips with new rules and using two different tire specifications, but as underlined by the final race of the season, where Gutierrez completed the entire race on super soft rubber, the lessons and data collected throughout the year will be put to good use in 2013. Esteban Gutierrez: “I'm delighted to secure a 7th podium and a great deal of points as it was a challenging weekend. Between it being a track we did not know and the rain in practice, we had to go straight in qualifying without knowing where we were set-up wise. It was a bit of a gamble but Lotus GP handled the situation perfectly once again. After a strong strategy that put me in second position, I stayed close to Max Chilton waiting for the opportunity to get past him, but at the same time my priority was to consolidate a good result as my first aim was third position in the championship. This has been the most rewarding season of my career, despite the fact I did not win the title, because this series is extremely competitive and I experienced many ups and downs. But that's what makes you a better driver and stronger driver. Many thanks to all the members of Lotus GP who helped me a lot this year just like they did since we started working together for what has been a fruitful and precious collaboration.” James Calado: “It was certainly not the ideal way to end the championship as I suffered from food poisoning and went to the hospital before the first race to have some fluids. I was so weak that I couldn’t take anymore and I had to throw in the towel after a few interesting battles. It would have been good to get into the points to help Lotus GP lift the team's title but that was just not possible. Towards the end of the sprint race I was struggling with tyre degradation on the super softs but, all things considered, 10th was OK although I lost the chance to be on the podium of the championship.” Frédéric Vasseur: “Lotus GP missed the title, but not by much. James’s deception is shared. Considering his inspirational driving and ability to excel, the end of the story would have been different without his food poisoning. It was one of Esteban’s best weekends and victory was certainly within his reach, but for various reasons he could not grab it. It is always important to finish the season on a high note and Lotus GP can be proud of its achievements in Singapore and throughout the entire season. We will learn from some weekends that were costly to us in order to prepare for next year where our goal is to re-register our name in the history of the GP2 Series.”

No points today for Lotus GP who had a very tough race. Esteban Gutierrez retired after he went off track at the parabolica. James Calado couldn't do better than 14th. The next and final races will take place in Singapore.

Tough race today for Lotus GP in the GP2 Series. Esteban Gutierrez managed to bring home the points of the 9th place after a difficult race where he had to face an engine cut. James Calado finished out of the top 10, 12th. Race 2 is scheduled tomorrow at 10h35.

Lotus GP had a difficult day today in Monza in the GP2 Series. The team never found the right setup for the super-fast Monza track. In the end, Esteban Gutierrez ended P9 and James Calado 13. Race 1 will start tomorrow at 15:40.

New podium for James Calado who finished P3 today in the second race of the GP2 Series in Spa-Francorchamps. The british driver lost P2 in the last yards of the race. Esteban Gutierrez ended P13. The mexican was running in the top 8 when he has been pushed out by another driver while he was overtaking him. Next round in Monza next week !

James Calado climbed on the second step of the podium during the first race of the GP2 Series today in Spa-Francorchamps. The race has been interrupted by the safety car first and then by the red flag following the huge crash of N. Melker. Esteban Gutierrez was penalized by his pit-stop just behing James Calado during the safety car period and then by a drive through or overtaking under a yellow flag. He ended 11th. The second race will start tomorrow at 10h35.

It was a good day for Lotus GP in the GP2 Series today in Spa. Despite the heavy rain, the team produced a big effort to put one car on the front row and one one the second row. James Calado will start 2nd, having lost just one tenth to the pole position. Esteban Gutierrez will start 3rd and will be in good position to catch up big points for the championship. The race 1 will start at 15h40 tomorrow.

Esteban Gutierrez won the second race of the GP2 Series in Budapest. The Mexican, who started from the pole position, led from start to finish and did the fastest lap of the race. James Calado couldn’t do better than P6. Next round will take place in Spa-Francorchamps at the end of August.

James Calado crossed the finish line in 4th place in today's race of the GP2 Series. His teammate, Esteban Gutierrez, took the 8th position thanks to an aggressive end of race. He will start from pole tomorrow. Race 2 will start tomorrow morning at 10:35.

After a good practice session, James Calado did the second fastest lap of the quaifying session while he was on top during most of the session. But the young brit will only start P4 following a 2 place grid penalty received after the practice session for blocking. Esteban Gutierrez will start from P7. The start of the race will be given tomorrow at 15h40.

James Calado won he second race of the GP2 Series in Hockenheim. The young briish driver led from start to finish. Esteban Gutierrez ended 5th after putting a constant pressure on the drivers just in front of him. Next round will take place in Budapest next week.

It's under a heavy rain that the GP2 Series qualifying session took place today in Hockenheim. After having put a good performance during the practice session, Lotus GP drivers fought for the pole during the 30 minutes of the qualifying session. In the end, James Calado got the 2nd best time of the day, a few thousands off the pole. Esteban Gutierrez could do better than 9th. Both drivers will have to add a 10 position penalty to their result of the day. The start of the race will be at 15h40 tomorrow.

Lotus GP driver Esteban Gutiérrez chalked up another victory for the team’s 2012 GP2 Championship campaign with a first place finish and fastest race lap in nothing short of changeable conditions at the Silverstone circuit in Britain this weekend. This was the team’s third win of the season and cemented their place at the top of the leaderboard. With rain playing a major role in a chaotic free practice session, the circuit was wet and the rain never too far away for the all-important qualifying session a few hours later. Slotting in fifth, Esteban Gutierrez and sixth, James Calado, race one was always going to be a challenge. However, true to form, Esteban delivered a fine performance to secure his second feature victory of 2012, despite the rain sodden track throwing up every possible challenge in his path. The race started behind the safety car and the Mexican driver was the first to change tyres on lap 15, teammate James Calado following suit. However, while Estaban raced onto victory aided by the fact that the leader failed to take his mandatory pit stop, James stopped on track shortly after his stop with a technical failure. The action packed race two almost resulted in another podium for the Mexican driver however, the final push at the end of the race saw a minor incident when Johnny Cecotto forced him wide and off track while Esteban was putting a brilliant overtaking manoeuvre on him. The two collided and Esteban was left to cross the line in fourth place. Teammate James Calado was forced to start from the back of the grid due to his failure in race one, however despite a strong run and lots of positive overtaking manoeuvres, he finished twentieth overall after losing positions at the end. Both Esteban and James were penalized following this round, due to contact with other drivers, and will each lose ten places on the grid in the next event at Hockenheim in two weeks’ time. Esteban Gutiérrez now sits third in the drivers’ championship on 122 points, while James Calado is equal fourth on 95. Lotus GP have stretched their lead in the teams championship to 217, 12 ahead of their nearest challenger. Esteban Gutierrez: “This second win, a fortnight after Valencia, was very special because of the conditions. To start behind the safety car and to clean the line a bit was a good thing because there was lots of aquaplaning in the beginning. Step by step, I got to grips with the track and pushed harder and harder. We pitted early and that was the key because I gained several positions and when the safety car came back we knew the leader, Fabio Leimer, had not pitted. From then on, I made sure that I didn’t make any mistakes but I pushed a bit to clock the fastest lap of the race and get the points that come with it. We came close to climbing on the podium on Sunday, I fought tooth and nail but it did not work our way. I tried to overtake Johnny Cecotto on the outside of Stowe on the final lap but he did not give me enough room and I went over the kerb. Coming back on track, my tyres were dirty and I lost a bit the control of the car and hit Cecotto. P4 is a great reward for the team and I’m happy to leave Silverstone third in the championship.” James Calado: “The car was good, so was I and we could fight for pole. I was third before the session was red flagged and after that I could not better my lap time. But 6th was not so bad, especially with tricky conditions where qualifying does not count as much as on another track. I was comfortable in fifth place, fighting with Esteban who later won the race which gives an idea of what we could have achieved. I had a technical failure that caused the gearbox to fail itself. The outcome of the first race was hard to take after the missed opportunity in Valencia where the win was on the cards. I’m pretty sure I would have been on the podium without the technical glitches. Sunday’s race was always going to be a tough fight starting from the last row and I enjoyed myself a lot, I overtook a lot of cars and came close to securing a point.” Frederic Vasseur: “It is our third victory of the season, the second in a row in a feature race and it is a huge satisfaction. Unfortunately it was marred by technical problem for James that probably deprived him of a fifth podium, something that would have been a remarkable achievement for a beginner. Esteban and James were very fast and performed very highly in what can only be called stressful conditions. We must accept the penalties and the lessons for the future.”

Esteban Gutierrez scored the points of the 4th place today in the second race of the GP2 Series in Silverstone. His teammate, James Calado, drove a strong race but ultimately finished out of the track while fighting with another driver. The track was dry during the whole race. Next races will be in Hockenheim in two weeks.

In a very wet qualifying session, Lotus GP put both its GP2 cars in the top 6, Esteban Gutierrez in P5, just in front of teammate James Calado. Both Lotus GP drivers took advantage of an improving track to set good laps in the last minutes and join the top of the time sheet. Race one will start at 14:40 tomorrow (29 laps).

Lotus GP added another win and second place to their 2012 GP2 Championship stats with Mexican racer Esteban Gutierrez securing victory in the feature race at the Valencia street circuit in Spain this weekend and teammate James Calado finishing second in the sprint race. Round six was help under hot and sunny conditions, however while the sun shone off track, action and chaos prevailed on track. Starting fifth on the grid after a penalty, Gutierrez persevered through three safety cars to secure his first feature race victory. The extreme heat took its toll on everyone with one after the other being affected in some way. While battling for second place, the Mexican driver had an incident with van der Garde at the hairpin, causing both to run wide and lose places. The chaos continued, in the pit lane and on the circuit but Gutierrez kept his head, however at the restart he attempted to make a move on Leimer just before the start/finish line, they touched, ran wide, but thankfully resumed his race with no damage done. With chaos continuing behind him, Gutierrez finally took first place from his teammate to secure the win. Unfortunately, a trip into the barriers saw his second race of the weekend come to a very premature end. Meanwhile, teammate James Calado, was on course for the victory but was forced to give it away in the final laps. After securing a brilliant pole position and driving a brilliantly controlled race, leading the event almost from start to finish, he was forced to pit under the final safety car and hand the win to his teammate. Due to driver penalties from race one, James was promoted to eighth and pole position for the second race. Once again he led almost all the way, only to have the victory snatched away once again in the final laps due to his tyres degrading, leaving him to finish a close second. James is now third int eh championship with 95 points while Esteban sits in sixth with 87. Lotus GP is leading the team’s championship with 182 points. Esteban Gutierrez: After a couple of tough races, my main goal was to get back the feeling I had in the car this winter and to fight for pole was a little win in itself. I respected the steward decisions to hand me a grid penalty. P5 was not so bad and I had a good start from the clean side of the track. I tried to enjoy myself, the car, the work with the team and the race. I gave it my all and overtook some guys with a bit of a risk but sometimes you just have to go for it if you want to win. I feel sorry for James because he deserved to win but it's a great momentum for me personally and for the team too. We have to use this positive energy to fight at the front for the next races. James Calado: Pole position was great but a bit unexpected as most of the drivers set their fastest laps with the harder compound. I think it's fair to say that I dominated the weekend from qualifying up to the safety car. It destroyed a 16 or something second gap I opened up and there was not one but three safety cars and I still had to make my compulsory pit stop. We lost a well-deserved win but that’s racing. Afterwards the good news was that I was promoted to pole position in the second race. On Sunday, I led most of the race but ran out of tyres at the end. Haryanto and I came side by side and I gave him enough room but he locked his brakes and crashed into me. Fortunately I could go on and this podium is a decent recovery after the disappointment of the first race. Frederic Vasseur: On one hand there's the satisfaction of a win and a podium, on the other the frustration for James as he got unlucky. We were much faster than the others and it was good to keep him on track to widen the gap, but the safety car ruined his race because it entered the track when he was in the last corner before making his pit stop. He did great with what was not the best set of tyres on Sunday and his podium is well deserved. Esteban fought hard and well, he was extremely fast and for once he was a bit lucky on Saturday. Bad luck was back on Sunday when he could do nothing to avoid a car that had just crashed into the wall ahead of him.

James Calado couldn’t do better than 2nd in the second GP2 Series race of the week-end in Valencia. The british driver led from the start but his tyres were gone and he couldn’t save his position. Esteban Gutierrez didn’t have to worry about his tyres as he was forced to retire following the chaos of turn 1 after the start.

Lotus GP won Race 1 in Valencia, courtesy of Esteban Gutierrez. James Calado led most of the race but saw his hopes ruined by the safety car. Race 2 will take place tomorrow morning.

Lotus GP had his best qualifying session of the year so far today : Pole position for James Calado and P3 for Esteban Gutierrez. Both Lotus GP drivers did a good job this morning during the practice session and they took out the best of their car this afternoon in a very tight qualifying session. James and Esteban are now in a very good position to score big points in tomorrow race 1 that will start at 15h40.

The fifth round of the 2012 GP2 season took place under beautiful blue skies in Monaco this week-end, however it wasn’t a weekend to remember for the Lotus GP team. The jewel in the crown on the F1 calendar definitely wasn’t the nicest so far for Esteban Gutierrez. The Mexican’s weekend got off to a bad start after he lost the rear of his Lotus and slammed into the wall just out of St Devote, bringing his practice session to a premature end. With an new qualifying format in place for the first time in GP2 history where the cars were split into two groups, odd and even numbers, Esteban qualified fifth in his group, but that meant he lined up fifth from the front with odds down one side of the grid and evens down the other. Race one was difficult and after losing out in the pits, Gutiérrez was running 9th until he came up to lap a backmarker and ran too deep, bounced over the kerbs and into the wall, forcing him back into the pits to retire with a broken front wing. Race two was one to remember however with a brilliant drive up through the field in a race littered with accidents and a safety car intervention to eventually cross the finish line in eighth place. With 2 sets of each tyre, and a shortened qualifying session teammate James Calado was seventh fastest in his group, meaning he started the feature race from row seven, his strategy was to pit early, coming in on lap 11 in an attempt to make up some ground. His strategy paid off and he eventually crossed the line in seventh place. Starting from the front two in the sprint race, the young Englishman was swamped at the start by polesitter, Stephane Richelmi leaving him nowhere to go except into the back of him, damaging his front wing in the process. He was eventually shown the black and orange flag due to the damage and his chance of scoring points was over. Heading into the next round in Valencia in three weeks time, Calado is now fifth in the championship with 75 points while Gutierrez is sixth on 60 points. Lotus GP remains in second place in the teams classification on 135 points. Esteban Gutierrez: Well, it was the worst track to drastically curtail track time in practice and it more or less dictated the rest of the weekend. I caught up a bit in qualifying as my lap time was not bad but I suffered from the lack of preparation to go grab the last tenths. I had a good start and gained positions right away which is always pleasing in Monaco. A good pitstop and a great car helped us fight for more and we were 7th when I found a lapped car acting weird in front of me. I tried to avoid him at the chicane but I did not have enough space, I went on the kerb and straight into the wall. I have to say the second race was very positive after a very tough weekend mentally speaking. A point finish was somewhat unconceivable starting from 23rd on the grid in Monaco but with a pile up in first lap and a strong race we manage to grab 1 point. Now we have to work hard to make sure we finally get the results the car and the team deserve. James Calado: After my first pole a fortnight ago, 13th position on the grid in the feature race was certainly not what I was expecting. It was a disappointment not to be able to string three quick sectors together. The plan was to pit early to get rid of traffic and aim for 8th place and the reverse pole. It worked out perfectly! I lost 3 positions at the start but then I peeled off a lot of fast laps and after the pit stop our goal was achieved. We used to stay the start is crucial in Monaco and it was for me, but in a bad way. I had a good start and was fighting with the polesitter when he left me no room; I had nowhere to go but in the back of his car and it destroyed my front wing and nose. I had to go back to the pits to change it and from then on scoring points was out of reach. Frédéric Vasseur: This is our worst weekend so far on the points scoring level but the performance and potential of both James and Esteban were very good and the team did their best to prepare a fast car. In Monaco more than anywhere else, the smallest delay in preparation costs you dearly and that’s what hampered our progress with Esteban hitting the barriers after a few laps in practice while James struggled to put his three best sector times together. They both recovered really well in the race and did not get the results they deserved because of external issues we could not do anything about.

It was a full of action race today in Monaco as no less than 8 cars have been eliminated in the first meters of the race. James Calado and Esteban Gutierrez managed to survived the chaos but the british driver has been forced to change his front wing by the race control. However the car was too damaged and James had to retire. Esteban finished the race in 8th and score one point. The next race will take place in Valencia at the end of june.

Lotus GP had a difficult race today in the GP2 Series. The team scored a few more points thanks to James Calado who brought back his car in P7. Esteban Gutierrez had a contact with the barrier and couldn't finished the race as the car was too damaged. He was classified 23rd. Race 2 is scheduled tomorrow after the F1 qualifying.