FP1 & FP2 Bahrain GP report: Lotus Renault

Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado completed a strong day of evaluation runs during the first day of the Bahrain Grand Prix. With running taking place in the afternoon and evening at the Bahrain International Circuit, the team accumulated an impressive tally of laps in FP1 whilst conducting aero evaluations of various parts. In the evening session, further evaluations as well as set-up and tyre work was completed.

Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director - Technical programme notes

— We evaluated a number of upgrades, principally aerodynamic with both cars running without issue in FP1.
— Pastor spent unexpected time in the garage during FP2 to repair damage sustained after jumping a kerb.
— Romain missed some running in FP2 whilst an engine misfire was investigated.
— Pirelli’s medium (white) compound tyre was used in the first session, the medium and soft (yellow) in the evening.
— We have a lot of data to digest here and at Enstone.

Romain Grosjean

“We have learnt a lot about the car today which can only help us to make progress. I had a bit of an issue which needed investigating in the second session, so it was frustrating to miss some time as I’m sure we would have made more improvements. It was interesting driving one session on a hot and bright afternoon then the next in darkness. We have lots of work to do for tomorrow.”

Pastor Maldonado

“It was good to have a reliable car and we completed a lot of work today. We had a lot of parts to test and we ran through many different evaluations. I made a little mistake in the evening session and we took quite a bit of air after jumping the kerb. Fortunately, not too much damage was done and we could continue the session. I’m looking forward to tomorrow to see how well we can perform.”

Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director

“Today was a far more normal Friday where we were able to evaluate a wide selection of new aero parts in the first session and work on set-up and tyre performance in the evening session. FP1 wasn’t a fantastic experience for either driver; we kept a baseline setup on the car as we assessed many new parts. The evening was all about data collection, albeit of a different nature too. Aside from a small issue with Romain’s car we have been reliable today which means we have plenty of data to be working on overnight as we look to qualifying tomorrow.”