Team Lotus avoids Monaco chaos for double finish, Davide Valsecchi wins GP2 race for Team AirAsia

Team Lotus avoids Monaco chaos for double finish, Davide Valsecchi wins GP2 race for Team AirAsia

In an incident filled Monaco GP where one man didn’t start and six failed to finish, Team Lotus did well to avoid the chaos and bring both cars to the finish line. Thanks to the dropouts, which included the likes of Michael Schumacher and Felipe Massa, Jarno Trulli finished 13th and Heikki Kovalainen 14th, the highest they’ve been this season. Still no points on the board, although the team is rather upbeat about the weekend.

“A strong result for the team and it was good to get both cars over the finish line. Both drivers drove very strong races and we gave them a chance to fight with a two stop strategy, starting both cars on options. We switched Heikki to the prime for the last two stints because he had higher degradation but kept Jarno on the options until the second pitstop and even thought they were held up by slower cars we are very pleased with 13th and 14th,” said Mike Gascoyne, Chief Technical Officer.

Team Lotus avoids Monaco chaos for double finish, Davide Valsecchi wins GP2 race for Team AirAsia

Team boss Tony Fernandes is a satisfied man: “I watched the race from Bali and that capped off an incredible week for us. This time last year neither car finished the race but today both cars crossed the line in 13th and 14th places. Our pace was good but most importantly both cars finished the race, we brought the Team Lotus brand home and we won the first of the GP2 races in Monaco. That constitutes a very good week’s work at the office.”

He is referring to Davide Valsecchi, the Team AirAsia driver who won GP2 Race One in Monaco.

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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

  • Vincent on May 30, 2011 at 6:03 am

    ‘ even thought they were held up by slower cars we are very pleased with 13th and 14th’

    I like this sentence. Its even better if he could change the words13th and 14th to 1st and 2nd. LOL

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  • Bujang Lapuk on May 30, 2011 at 7:22 am

    Considering the unpredictable tends to happen in Monaco (1996 was Olivier Panis’ only victory, and 1982 saw only Riccardo Patrese finishing the race), the Monaco Grand Prix may very well hold future successes for Team Lotus.

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  • zulhisham on May 30, 2011 at 8:26 am

    tahniah Team Lotus !!!

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  • squawk on May 30, 2011 at 9:16 am

    Congrats to Davide and team. It’s not an easy drive.

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  • trav_da_man on May 30, 2011 at 9:56 am

    So so race from TL but at least both cars finished the race. TL needs KERs badly in order to challenge Force India and Williams. But with inclusion of new sponsorship, may there are funds for the KERS to be developed for 2011.

    Congrats to Davide Valsecchi, he is a much deserved reserve driver for TL.

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  • nabill on May 30, 2011 at 10:41 am

    until when tony will be happy jus finishing races rather than actually scoring points ??

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  • Peter on May 30, 2011 at 5:58 pm

    Accident happened in front at the top 10 cars, fighting live & dead at each other … the last 10 of course are incident free (LOL). The strategy adopted by TL should be called ‘Safety 1st’ (LOL agn) :D

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