Lotus: An excellent first day at the office

Lotus tech boss Mike Gascoyne has sung the praises of his team following an "excellent" first day at Jerez.

Although Lotus's T127 had been put through a shakedown at Silverstone last week, Wednesday's opening day of testing at Jerez marked the first competitive outing for the new team's car.

And it came through the test with flying colours.

Test driver Fairuz Fauzy was given the honour of pitting the new car up against its rivals and was quickly into the action.

The Malaysian tester, who completed the 300kms he needed in order to obtain a super licence, amassed 76 laps and finished ahead of fellow newcomers Virgin Racing on the timesheets. And he did so without power steering.

"It's been an excellent day for the whole team," said Gascoyne.

"Firstly I want to say a big thank you to Fairuz who did an excellent job today with the first proper day of running.

"With so much going on, such as doing systems checks, it can be a pretty disjointed day for the driver.

"When you add into that the changeable conditions, and also the fact we were running without power steering today, it could have been a tricky day for Fairuz but he didn't put a foot wrong so well done to him and a big thank you.

"With the car we had no major reliability issues - a few niggles with overheating which were quickly solved and then the car ran pretty faultlessly.

"The power steering issue will be fixed for tomorrow so all in all a very successful first day and a busy evening ahead preparing the car for tomorrow."

Fauzy was another member of the team who was all smiles on Wednesday evening. "To arrive here and complete 76 laps is fantastic," he said.

"It was a big challenge, both to complete the 300kms I need for the Super Licence, and with no power steering it was difficult to drive in the dry, not so bad in the wet, so I was driving a bit conservatively but I am just very pleased."

Heikki Kovalainen is set to take the driving duties on Thursday and Friday before handing over to team-mate Jarno Trulli for the final day.

Source: Lotus: An excellent first day at the office - Planet-F1 News from planet-f1.com