• Korean Grand Prix - FP2

Grosjean trusts Lotus long wheel base making a difference

Lotus ran the long-wheel base version of its car for both drivers © Sutton Images

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Romain Grosjean says he cannot feel a difference now he is running a longer wheel base car, but trusts it is offering an advantage at this weekend at the Korean Grand Prix.

Lotus first trialled the longer wheel base on Kimi Raikkonen's car during Friday practice at the Italian Grand Prix but opted not to run it in the race. In Singapore there was little advantage to be gained from the layout, which improves stability in high-speed corners, but Grosjean hopes it will make a difference in Korea.

"To be honest, I don't feel any difference but it should be all right," he said. "It's supposed to be more stable in high-speed and on the entry to low-speed, that's what it says on the paper. It's hard [to judge] when you just put it on the car and drive it, it's not like we can do a back-to-back. But the engineers don't complain about the car too much and so far it has been okay."

Grosjean finished the second practice session sixth fastest but made a mistake on his quick lap. He also had a brief on-track spat with Nico Hulkenberg when the Sauber got blocked by the Lotus in the final sector and then was blocked himself in the next corner.

"I moved as much as I could on the right and he wasn't happy and then he braked in front of me and I didn't know what was going on," he said. "I wanted to go to the pit, but it was nothing too crazy. I think he wasn't too happy because he had a bit of a snap on the Astroturf and when you are on a quick lap and you do a mistake and somebody is in front, it is easy to blame him. I did the same when I had a little lock up on my hot lap and there was a car that distracted me a little bit."

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