Lotus: Late-race problem slows Kovalainen

Lotus believe Heikki Kovalainen could have beaten Pastor Maldonado again had he not been slowed by technical problems in Turkey.

	Heikki Kovalainen	Jarno Trulli
Qualifying position	18	19
Qualifying time comparison (Q1)	1’28.780 (-0.893)	1’29.673
Race position	19	18
Laps	56/58	57/58
Pit stops	3	3

Lotus drivers’ lap times throughout the race (in seconds):

https://www.racefans.net/charts/2011drivercolours.csv

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	35	36	37	38	39	40	41	42	43	44	45	46	47	48	49	50	51	52	53	54	55	56	57	58
Heikki Kovalainen	103.531	97.37	96.52	96.825	97.346	96.237	95.993	96.413	96.477	97.023	98.668	97.788	99.189	97.846	97.935	113.475	95.53	95.038	95.261	95.175	96.089	94.871	95.093	95.182	95.006	95.273	95.431	95.166	96.13	95.648	96.643	110.809	93.799	93.887	93.849	93.677	93.395	95.568	93.818	94.09	94.404	94.485	93.791	93.654	94.001	94.089	94.775	94.831	95.565	97.533	99.126	99.408	100.091	116.399	92.695	93.462
Jarno Trulli	104.673	97.045	97.043	97.006	96.454	96.389	96.078	96.393	96.443	97.501	97.874	99.34	98.647	112.658	94.974	94.814	94.901	94.68	94.979	94.912	94.802	94.789	95.168	96.265	96.212	112.432	94.328	94.198	94.124	94.144	95.922	94.392	94.465	94.312	95.701	94.355	94.586	94.455	95.436	111.567	94.254	93.696	93.185	93.019	93.28	93.787	93.483	93.355	92.862	93.19	94.28	95.15	95.973	94.72	94.172	94.293	96.713

Heikki Kovalainen, Jarno Trulli, Lotus, Istanbul, 2011

Heikki Kovalainen

Kovalainen was pleased with his “right on the money” qualifying lap. He was half-a-second away from making it into Q2.

He got up to 15th at the start but was passed by Sebastien Buemi, Kamui Kobayashi and Jaime Alguersuari in the opening laps.

He tried to run a two-stop strategy but his lap times dropped off badly towards the end of the race and he had to make an extra stop. A hydraulic problem meant his DRS and differential weren’t working properly.

Chief technical officer Mika Gascoyne said that without his problems, Kovalainen would have been able to beat Pastor Maldonado again:

“We were concerned that he would not be able to get to the end, and that if his tyres went off he would be unable to stop again but we were forced to keep him on two stops and turn off the differential and clutch off which made his car very difficult to handle.

“Without that, I think we would have been able to beat Maldonado on the track.”

Heikki Kovalainen 2011 form guide

Jarno Trulli

Trulli also had DRS problems. His surfaced in qualifying, explaining his deficit to Kovalainen of almost nine tenths of a second.

He ran a conventional three-stop strategy and inherited 18th place from his struggling team mate, finishing almost half a minute behind Maldonado.

Jarno Trulli 2011 form guide

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14 comments on “Lotus: Late-race problem slows Kovalainen”

F1iLike
9th May 2011, 11:41

Turn off the differential? That’s odd

Heikki is doing really well! As do Lotus of course!
timi (@timi)
9th May 2011, 11:46

but we were forced to keep him on two stops and turn off the differential and clutch off which made his car very difficult to handle.

wow, talk about extreme measures!!!
anyway, kov clearly still has quite a bit of talent and did very well for an over 20-lap stint. very glad the lotus boys are catching up to the ailing williams.
i think a lot of the credit should go to kovalainen and trulli, two such experienced drivers must give great input and analysis on how the car is and where it needs to improve. kudos
BasCB (@bascb)
9th May 2011, 12:32

Impressive car nursing then by Heikki. Just goes to show how hard it it, just to make these systems work properly.

I must say, HRT are doing a fine job with avoiding technical glitches so far.
1. Zecks (@zecks)
  9th May 2011, 13:36
  
  the parts are under less stress when cornering at half the speed of the front runners
  1. Philonso (@philonso)
    9th May 2011, 17:59
    
    hello exaggeration!
Douglas62500
9th May 2011, 13:18

That’s not bad at all considering all those problems they had. Let’s just hope that their upcoming updates for Barcelona would not cause them too much trouble, especially on the exhausts, as Virgin and Williams did.
Eggry (@eggry)
9th May 2011, 13:40

If they bring 0.5 secs as Mike said, they could hunt some of mid field teams.
1. Eggry (@eggry)
  9th May 2011, 13:41
  
  sorry. 0.8 secs in Spain.
wasiF1 (@wasif1)
9th May 2011, 16:23

They are gaining more confident every race they race.Keep up the good work,among the new team they are the best looking in the pack.
Fixy (@)
9th May 2011, 16:39

Trulli seems to have problems every practice/qualifying/race. Glad to see him ahead of Heikki.
US_Peter (@us_peter)
9th May 2011, 20:47

Q2 is still gonna be a tall order for them even with a good update. With Kobayashi out of qualifying early on, this was their best shot. If no one has a mechanical problem, then they’ll have to beat at least two established drivers to make Q2, not just one driver as they would’ve had to here.
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
9th May 2011, 22:38

They’re getting there. I think it’s a little early to expect them to be beating Maldonado consistently.
Mack41 (@mack41)
10th May 2011, 5:03

Well it seems they’re almost there. They should have added KERS though; its only worth .3 per lap but they’re close to Maldonado. IF they have equivalent/better performance in relation to the rest of the field next year KERS is a must and they will be mixing it up.
The New Pope
11th May 2011, 4:45

I love Caterham F1!