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Pressure is still on - Grosjean

Romain Grosjean's third place in Bahrain was his first podium since Hungary © Sutton Images

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• Race:
• Spanish Grand Prix

• Drivers:
• Romain Grosjean

• Teams:
• Lotus F1

Romain Grosjean says "the pressure is still on" for him at Lotus despite arriving at the Spanish Grand Prix off the back of a podium in Bahrain.

Having struggled at the start of the season, Grosjean showed a marked improvement in Bahrain to come home third behind Sebastian Vettel and team-mate Kimi Raikkonen. Team principal Eric Boullier declared after the race that the result signalled the start of Grosjean's season, but Grosjean warned that a lot of hard work is required to repeat the performance.

"It did change things, that's for sure," Grosjean said. "I've been working hard with the mechanics, the engineers, all of the guys in the team and they didn't lose confidence in me. They pushed me very hard and in the end it was a good way to give all the work back to them and to celebrate this podium. So things have changed and it's a new boost for us but the pressure is still on; it's part of the game here. It's good to see and to know that we can have the E21 that we love driving and hopefully from there we keep working on that pace."

Asked if the changes he made in Bahrain would automatically cross over to Barcelona, Grosjean said he has to start from square one again this weekend.

"No, it would be too easy! Every time you come to a new track it's like you play new cards. We know what we changed, we know that it changed my feeling and hopefully we don't get it wrong again, but from there we just keep a close eye on it and work harder and harder every time."

However, Grosjean did admit that the approach to his car set-up he took at the last race should help him this weekend.

"The philosophy should. It's not a change like the end of the world but the change in the car is like night and day. Straight away on Saturday morning I didn't my first flying lap and the engineer asked me 'How is the car?' and I said 'It's like night and day'. But on the data it's not that clear, so it's just a feeling which makes it more tricky to find, but at least I have the feeling and I know what it is when it happens there."

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