Lotus Racing F1 Team Race Report: European GP

Once again, the F1 circus returns to Spain on the 27th June for the European GP round. Held at the streets of Valencia, Lotus celebrated their 500th race in a race full of controversy. In the race won by Red Bull Racing's Sebastian Vettel, his team-mate Mark Webber was involved in a huge accident when he ran into rhe rear of Heikki Kovalainen's Lotus on lap 8, flipping his car into the air before ending up in the tyre barriers. Kovalainen's race was effectively ended with his rear spoiler flew off in the incident. Soon the Safety Car was called into action for 4 laps, during which 2nd place man Lewis Hamilton of McLaren Mercedes pitted for fresh tyres and was deemed to have overtaken the Safety Car illegally when he was exiting from the pits. Lewis was handed a drive-through penalty 15 laps down the road but still kept his 2nd position until the end of the race. Jenson Button had a tough battle with Sauber Ferrari's Kamui Kobayashi for 3rd place, which saw the defending world champion grabbing the final podium spot when Kobayashi had to pit with few laps remaining for tyres. Kovalainen's team-mate Jarno Trulli suffered steering problems early in the race, but managed to soldier the car on, albeit down 4 laps from the race winner. Kovalainen said after the race, "First of all it's good news that both of us are ok. Mark had a hardcore flight, and it could have ended up much worse, so it's good we're both fine. It's such a shame the race ended that early - I was going really well, pulling away from the guys behind by about half a second a lap, and with Mark we were racing for position so I was always going to defend. I didn't do anything wrong and he just ran into me. I think he missed his braking point and he ran into me at a very bad angle - his front tyre hit my right rear and he took off. I had to make a mandatory visit to the medical centre, and shook hands with Mark there, but I'm absolutely fine, and glad Mark is too." Trulli was equally disappointed too. "Obviously it was a very disappointing end to our 500th race. Jarno got hit at the start, and we had to change the nose. He also took a hit at the back, and that caused a gearbox problem. We were able to fix that and send him out again, although he was three laps down. He was held up by some of the other slower cars, but at the end of the race he was able to push and really show the car's pace. Heikki had an accident with Webber - he was defending his line and racing for position, and that's what we will always do in that situation. It's just a great shame, and we're very glad that neither driver was hurt." Team boss Datuk Tony Fernandes sums up the teams feelings, "Heikki's accident is part of racing. It's a shame as both cars are coming on really well, but there is some good to take out of this. Despite being hit, Jarno managed to finish the race, and at the end it was great to hear him say 'the car is bloody good!'. Overall it's been a very positive weekend, with a good Qualifying session and lots of very positive meetings and good decisions made for next year. It's also been a pleasure having the Chapman family here, and now we're all looking forward to bringing Lotus Racing back to the UK and racing in front of the British fans."