Lotus Racing F1 Team Race Report: Canadian GP

The Canadian GP marks its return after a year's absence on 13th June. Team Vodafone McLaren Mercedes reinforces their title contender status with their second consecutive one-two finish, the third for the season. Lewis Hamilton drove a superb pole to victory race while team-mate Jenson Button was pretty much untroubled during the whole race. Nearest rival Red Bull Racing finished fourth and fifth after struggling with tyre degradation and gearbox problem, hampering their bid for another win. Fernando Alonso of Scuderia Ferrari finally returned to the podium since the season-opening Bahrain race by taking third. Meanwhile, Lotus Racing F1 Team was having good evening as they became the first of the new team to lap the other new teams. But the happy mood was once again marred by Jarno Trulli's failure to finish after suffering brake problems. In a post-race interview, Trulli said, "It's such a shame I had to pull over - I had a great start and then I was really flying during the race. We got the strategy right on the tyres, and my pace was good - I was keeping up with the boys in front, and I was overtaking our other rivals. But then I felt a vibration that caused a problem with the braking system and I had to pull over. Still - we have to move on. It's another learning curve for the team and I think it's great to see that in the race I could really push and was putting in some very good lap times." Chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne said, "I think overall we can be very happy with the race, and the whole weekend. The one disappointment was obviously Jarno's problem - we will have to look at it in more detail, but it looks as though the vibration put paid to his race. Before he pulled over he was absolutely flying and the strategy would have really paid out for him, so that's a plus. Heikki drove a fantastic race, fighting all the way with the guys in front, and kept it up right to the end to keep Petrov behind him. I think this weekend has been a massive step forward for the whole team. Rather than being just one of the new teams, we actually got stuck in and raced the teams ahead, which is what we wanted to do, so congratulations and thank you to the whole team for getting us to this position. In the end we lapped both of the other new teams, so it was a great effort, and again, well done!" Team principal Datuk Tony Fernandes was in an equally upbeat mood. "I'm very happy with the result today, and the whole weekend's work. We got 42 laps from Jarno and Heikki drove an absolute cracker - beating a Renault was great, and Heikki did really well to hold him off, but the main aim for us is to get both cars home, and we'll keep working on that back at the factory and at the track. Now we go to Valencia where we'll be celebrating the 500th F1 race Lotus has competed in, and the ninth for Lotus Racing."