Kovalainen off curtails Lotus’ running

Heikki Kovalainen’s debut with the new Lotus team was short lived as he spun off the wet circuit, damaging the front wing at lunch time.

“Still a great day in many ways," said team principal Tony Fernandes. "You get the highs and the lows and you get the reality but overall I’m happy. The team is very motivated, there’s a lot of good morale and, while it’s unfortunate Heikki went off, these things happen.

"Something else I’m very pleased with is the reaction from the public to Lotus Racing. We’re going out there to tell the world what we’re up to and, judging by the phenomenal Twitter response we have had, we have already made an impact on the fans.”

With no replacement wing available for the brand new T127, the team were forced to call it a day with just 30 laps on the board.

The team however remains upbeat having found a solution to an earlier hydraulic problem while chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne confirmed that a new front wing will arrive overnight which will allow the team to resume the test programme.

“My fault, tomorrow we go again,” Kovalainen declared on his Twitter page.

Pictures of the crashed car are available in our Jerez gallery here.