Lotus sidelined after Kovalainen's crash

Lotus Racing have been forced to call an early halt to Thursday's test session in Jerez after Heikki Kovalainen damaged the front wing.

On his first day in the car, the former McLaren driver slid off a wet track into the gravel four hours in as rain again dominated proceedings in southern Spain, dislodging the nose.

With no spare immediately available, the Finn will now have to wait until tomorrow to continue putting the T127 through its paces.

Commenting on his Twitter page, Kovalainen said: "Had a crash and damaged front wing, session over for us. My mistake. Tomorrow we go again."

Confirming the damage on his page, Lotus' chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne added: "Slight off for Heikki.

"Knocked off the front wing. Spare on its way, but will not be here until 2am in the morning, so no more running today.

"Conditions drying up, so a shame not to get any dry running today."

It means for the remainder of the day Kovalainen will have to sit at the bottom of the timesheets, with his best lap a 1:33.554, nearly six seconds adrift of current pacesetter Rubens Barrichello in his Williams.

Lotus sidelined after Kovalainen's crash - Planet-F1 News from planet-f1.com