• Hungarian Grand Prix - Qualifying
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Grosjean 'surprised' to be on front row

ESPN Staff
July 28, 2012 « Raikkonen disappointed with fifth | Button reveals qualifying damage »
Romain Grosjean's previous best qualifying result was third place on the grid © Sutton Images
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Romain Grosjean is confident of a strong race in Hungary after admitting he was "a little bit surprised" to qualify in second place.

By pipping Sebastian Vettel with his final flying lap of qualifying, Grosjean secured the first front-row grid slot of his career and the first for Lotus this season. Having struggled with the handling of his car during Friday practice, Grosjean revealed that he had not expected to be starting so high up despite Lotus being one of many competitive teams.

"Qualifying was very tight and it was difficult to see where we would end up so on the front row is fantastic," Grosjean said. "We came here after a difficult weekend at Hockenheim and to be honest I didn't get off to the best start yesterday. We worked hard to improve things overnight and the car felt much better in practice this morning. I'm very happy and just a little bit surprised to be P2 on the grid."

With Lotus often citing its grid slots as the reason it is yet to win a race, Grosjean admitted that he was in a strong position.

"We normally have a good race pace. It's good to be back at the front; we had a difficult German Grand Prix, a difficult start here in Hungary but the guys did a fantastic job trying to help me set-up the car trying to find what was wrong and get back to the top. It's good; I think the race tomorrow is going to be interesting."

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