First shakedown complete for Lotus

Ahead of an official launch this Friday, the new Malaysian-backed Lotus team yesterday shook down its new 2010 challenger at Silverstone. Test and reserve driver Fairuz Fauzy completed the shakedown.

"To have done everything from scratch to a running car in 21 weeks is a fantastic achievement," chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne told the BBC. "It was a brief shakedown as we didn’t get some of the last parts from our suppliers until 6am on Tuesday morning, but that was to be expected given the timescales."

The car features classic green and yellow colours made famous by the Lotus brand and will be unveiled on Friday in London before testing in anger next week at Jerez.