• Malaysian Grand Prix

Lotus taking positives

Heikki Kovalainen battles Bruno Senna © Sutton Images

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• Race:
• Malaysian Grand Prix

• Drivers:
• Heikki Kovalainen

• Teams:
• Team Lotus

Heikki Kovalainen says the Malaysian Grand Prix was a positive race for the team as both cars made it to the finish line, albeit in 17th and 18th positions.

"It was still a very positive race for us, despite the issues," said Kovalainen. "My start wasn't fantastic and it meant I dropped immediately to the back. After that I got into a good rhythm, but started to see some issues on the dash. I tried to make a move on Di Grassi, but clipped his front wing when I was going past and damaged my left rear tyre, so had to come in to pit.

"Even with the problems we had the car was competitive and I was very comfortable. Compared to the other new teams our times are very competitive indeed, so I'm not going to let this race trouble me - we learned a lot and now we'll move on and look ahead to China."

Team-mate Trulli, who finished a place higher in 17th, said that the fact both cars made it to the finish proves that the work on reliability had been worth the effort.

"We made a good start, but then on the second lap I was hit by Glock, which made me spin, and from then on my race was compromised. Despite that I got the car home to the end and that shows our focus on reliability has been worth the effort," said Trulli.

Chief Technical Officer Mike Gascoyne was less optimistic than the drivers, saying that it was a disappointing race from his perspective.

"The beauty of sport is that you have highs and lows, and after the high of yesterday, with Heikki in Q2, it was a bit of a low today," said Gascoyne. "Jarno had some handling problems due to damaged bodywork at the rear, and did a great job to bring the car home.

"With Heikki, he had some very high temperatures which we managed to fix in the pit, and as soon as he was out again he was very competitive, took the car to the flag, and really showed what the car was capable of. So it was disappointing, but at least we managed to get two cars to the flag. We've learned a lot and are looking to move on and be on good form for China."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.