Lotus Racing scores a double finish at Silverstone

Lotus Racing scores a double finish at Silverstone

It was a fairly exciting race at yesterday’s British GP, where Mark Webber was simply in a class of his own. Further down the grid, Lotus Racing were as happy as the Aussie after a double finish – Jarno Trulli was 16th and Heikki Kovalainen 17th. Both T127 cars were one lap down from the race winner and finished ahead of the three other finishers from the rookie teams, which were 2 laps down from the lead. It was a much better outing than the last GP weekend at Valencia, where Heikki was out and Trulli finished dead last.

“Today’s been good – a strong two car finish is a great return on the all the hard work that’s been put in, so well done to the whole team for that, and once again we’re best of the news teams. Apologies to Heikki as we had a problem in his pitstop which dropped him behind the Virgin, but he drove a great race in the second half and managed to regain his place.

Lotus Racing scores a double finish at Silverstone

“Jarno had a very solid race to make sure we had a two car finish and keep ourselves best of the new teams. The only negative was the safety car which came at the wrong time for us, because we’d just pitted and it meant we dropped a lap down. But other than that it was a good strong Sunday, so well done to everyone in the team,” said Mike Gascoyne, Chief Technical Officer.

Besides that, Silverstone also saw VIP guest Hazel Chapman officially opening the team’s new motorhome alongside Tony Fernandes, Kamarudin Meranun, Bette Hill and former World Champion Nigel Mansell, the official FIA Steward for the British GP. Did you notice the AirAsia logo on the rear wing of the T127? That’s a result of Lotus taking on low cost long haul airline AirAsia X as its latest team partner.

On a separate note, congratulations to Spain for winning the World Cup! Beautiful movement, sublime passing and ball control – deserving winners indeed :)

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Danny Tan

Danny Tan loves driving as much as he loves a certain herbal meat soup, and sweet engine music as much as drum beats. He has been in the auto industry since 2006, previously filling the pages of two motoring magazines before joining this website. Enjoys detailing the experience more than the technical details.

 

Comments

  • cam.shaft on Jul 12, 2010 at 11:38 am

    seriously..whats the big huha bout finishing?

    If you build your car like tank or race with a tank…u would also finish the race.

    geez
    //cam.shaft

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  • Well done Lotus!

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  • squawk on Jul 12, 2010 at 11:58 am

    Congrats to Mark Webber and to Lotus for finishing. Force India had quite a good pace.

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  • dickybird on Jul 12, 2010 at 12:04 pm

    well done!

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  • Perdana Menteri ke-8 on Jul 12, 2010 at 12:43 pm

    i like both stewardess..

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  • baruang on Jul 12, 2010 at 12:49 pm

    If there is best rookie award, the award must go to them I think.
    But paul. can you update the result of Rally of Whangarei, New Zealand.

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  • LightStar on Jul 12, 2010 at 12:57 pm

    Keep up the good work…and hopefully they will able to race in mid pack after this

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  • not_ah_beng on Jul 12, 2010 at 1:24 pm

    Well done?? Well done??!? Well done to finish at the back of the grid??

    More jaguh kampung mentality I guess. So far Lotus has got 0 points sharing the same infamous position as Virgin or HRT but some Msian are easily pleased I guess.

    Yes lets give them a “best of the worst” award. Maybe we can also give them the “biggest ever waste of taxpayer money (behind Putrajaya)” award too! Hoorei!

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    • trav_da_man on Jul 12, 2010 at 2:37 pm

      Get lost, u and ur anti malaysian mentality. U think its easy to score points when there so many competitors?

      Typical malaysian negativity…….

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      • ramli din on Jul 12, 2010 at 6:41 pm

        Its not about anti – m’sian.
        It’s just that if you cannot perform and deliver results then
        its better off going else where.
        All the hoopla but nothing to shout about.
        Tony & Kamarudin hitching a free ride cos at the
        end of the day who is picking up the tab for them.?
        No way they are gonna pay a single sen
        for their flight,accomodation, food and entertainment.

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        • Tiadaid on Jul 13, 2010 at 3:26 pm

          So by your logic, if your child failed his midterm exam he should just quit schooling then? That mentality is the reason why Malaysia is in its current state. If it’s hard, quit? How pathetic.

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          • F1Freak on Jul 14, 2010 at 10:19 am

            Dont be ridiculous and compare against schooling la. You dont spend USD50-100 million to put 1 child through school

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          • Tiadaid on Jul 14, 2010 at 11:45 am

            It’s not ridiculous! It’s an apt comparison.

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      • not_ah_beng on Jul 13, 2010 at 1:16 pm

        Yea sure………take all our TAX money to go to a third-rate F1 team then send the ex-MAS CEO to tell us the nation going bankrap.

        Richard Branson may be an arrogant idiot but at least he uses his own money!

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      • dickybird on Jul 13, 2010 at 8:08 pm

        my team is and always has been Mclaren! and lots of tiffosi in malaysia! whatcha gonna do about that?! deport us?! if you dont like it that some ppl are exasperated by the vantiy of the bn govt, well too bad! suck it up boy or take a hike!

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        • Tiadaid on Jul 14, 2010 at 12:37 am

          It’s not wrong not to support Lotus, but then don’t bash them without merit. Credit where credit’s due. They’re doing well for a team formed only less then a year before they started. Last time anyone did that they were 11 seconds of the pace! But for Malaysians, they always expect things to be quick and easy, they expect Lotus to be among the front runners so quickly. Be realistic! If foreigners can praise Lotus, why can’t we give them some benefit of a doubt? That’s typical Malaysian attitude, if it’s Malaysian bash it to no avail, if it’s foreign praise it to high heaven. No wonder we can’t move forwards!

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    • squawk on Jul 12, 2010 at 3:15 pm

      Please go ask Vijay Mallya how long it took his team to score any points.

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    • Tiadaid on Jul 12, 2010 at 5:59 pm

      You’re not very smart eh?

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    • sham azlan on Jul 12, 2010 at 8:21 pm

      ini style m’sia. haha. jgn harap sangat. haha

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    • F1Freak on Jul 13, 2010 at 8:37 am

      I agree totally with not_ah_beng. There is nothing to celebrate. There is not such thing as “best of new teams” in F1. Lotus has no points!!! Just because the other 2 new teams are crap we are supposed to be satisfied finishing better than them??? Even if the team is always trying to justify their existence (undeserving praise) it does not mean that you viewers out there have to accept and condone it. Congratulating a team for 16th and 17th position and 1 lap down, shame on you.This has nothing to do with being a negative Malaysian, its a view of an F1 fan.

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    • dickybird on Jul 13, 2010 at 7:59 pm

      well, until they call a snap GE and we VOTE the CCBs out of putrajaya and then we can cut out this project jaga air muka 1malusaya.
      purely from a F1 viewpoint, “to finish First, first you have to finish”.

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    • 1Malaysia on Jul 14, 2010 at 2:51 pm

      If double is target for Lotus, so Lotus will never get any point in F1 & only can ahead other rookie teams.

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  • trav_da_man on Jul 12, 2010 at 2:10 pm

    Good race from the Lotus boys indeed! Trulli finally got the result he deserved!

    On the related note, looks like Lotus is going to sign Renault for engine deals for next session! http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/motorsport/formula_one/8808856.stm

    If that so this will make the lotus boys to be serious competitiors!

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    • cam.shaft on Jul 12, 2010 at 4:19 pm

      yeah…..riiiiteee~ i “believe” u

      engine is only telling half the story of a car…u can put a ferrari engine inside but if your car’s aerodynamics an chassis isn’t any good…u’d still be trading at the same current position.

      williams are using cosworth engines as well…look where they are competing…

      and what’s the big huha bout finishing? race a tank and u’d gurantee to finish as well…

      what bout the results they deserve? yeah maybe they deserve to be the back runners…looking at the final results 3 top teams drivers retired…so if they were still racing till the end..that makes our lotus team 19 and 20 respectively…a big improvement eh…pfft..

      //cam.shaft

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  • MANBO on Jul 12, 2010 at 3:57 pm

    go lotus go…..good race at silverstone

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  • scanzew on Jul 12, 2010 at 6:15 pm

    i hope Lotus using Mercedes engine next year instead renault powerplant..maybe replacing RedBull’s future contract with Mercedes…futhermore Petronas sponsoring Mercedes, so i think it not facing too many hesitation….

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  • cool running on Jul 12, 2010 at 6:53 pm

    It’s just a battle of the bottom feeders.
    Nothing to shout about.
    While Maxis & Naza was forced to sponsor them,
    Petronas did the best decision when it went for a champion.
    Good on you Petronas and not letting these Lotus boys
    arm wrestle you- telling you that you’re being anti Malaysia by not sponsoring them.

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    • caplock on Jul 12, 2010 at 9:38 pm

      LOL

      NAZA was force TO SPONSOR???

      please read who behind this lotus racing la bro…

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  • sham azlan on Jul 12, 2010 at 8:23 pm

    mmg pon ni bazir duit ba. ttp u jgn pakei airsia /maxis lain kali ko.

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    • ribut on Jul 13, 2010 at 7:40 am

      ini bukan membazir bro… airasia gunakan f1 sebagai platform untuk penjenamaan syarikat. macam masukkan iklan kat tv… setiap kali kereta lotus keluar tv, akan nampaklah logo air asia, maxis sebagai penaja.. agak agak 5 saat keluar iklan kat tv3 berapa kos… bayangkan kalau 5 saat jenama air asia keluar tv SELURUH DUNIA! ini semua bisnes beb! kalau tak, takkan le di Tony nak cabar tauke Virgin pakai baju peramugari kalau kalah!

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  • autojohndoe on Jul 12, 2010 at 9:23 pm

    well… mentality of the loser will always belittling others…

    the best thing is… they themselves do not have anything to be proud of even to themselves i supposed… but keep belittling others…

    That is some of Malaysian mind here i can say…

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  • pomen_gtr on Jul 13, 2010 at 12:06 pm

    to score more lotus should spend more money on engine and aero part…

    there’s rumours on renault engine..(maybe lotus f3 team that using renault engine going to help them afterward?hence the rumours on renault engine????)

    only those to major factor improved then we’ll look for better result from them….but now???just turn on live f1 show during race start for a few laps and a few laps to race finish…

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  • Tengokaje.. on Jul 13, 2010 at 1:36 pm

    Are Lotus F1 can get some points for this year F1 GP? Who knows.
    Hopefully with hiring new members recently, can give some +ive results to Lotus F1.

    Salam..

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  • lyclyc on Jul 14, 2010 at 12:41 am

    we are not pessimistic….. we need to gauge where are we standing?
    there are always other options available……

    got other alternative racing category available…….

    speechless…………..

    one day this year lotus will score…. when 10 cars in front crashed out……

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    • Tiadaid on Jul 14, 2010 at 11:56 am

      How to gauge standing in only a few races? In a car that was designed in record time? I mean, it’s an achievement to design a car in 6 months with limited budget and resources and only be less than 5 seconds off the pace, because the last time anyone did that (short design time) back in 1997, they were a horrendous 11 seconds of the pace! Besides, things take time in F1. When Jackie Stewart first started his Stewart-Ford team in 1997 he had a 5 year plan, in which he estimated his cars would win in year 4. In the end, Stewart-Ford had a stupendous 1999 (its last year as Stewart), 3 years after the start before crashing back to earth as Jaguar in 2000. When Red Bull took over the team, how long before they started challenging for the win? 4 years after its first start in 2005 You have to look at it in the long term, not short term. And with the newly minted Renault engine deal you can see that Tony and his team are deadly serious about getting successful results.

      And what racing category offers the same amount of coverage as F1 throughout the world? Not a lot. Rallying is a shadow of its former glory, and motorcycle racing although exciting doesn’t have the same cachet as F1 (and even then Tony invested in Motogp with the Airasia team, albeit in the 125cc class).

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  • hope lotus will gain the 1st point for the next race

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