Photo by: XPB Images
PRACTICE ONE
Romain Grosjean, R31-04
P12, 1:42.685, 29 laps
Vitaly Petrov, R31-06
P13, 1:43.118, 13 laps
Lotus Renault GP began its preparations for this weekend’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Romain Grosjean had his first taste of Grand Prix weekend R31 track action today as he completed a trouble-free FP1 session in Bruno Senna’s R31-04.
Making his debut, Romain made the most of the running and completed 29 laps using one set of Pirelli’s medium and soft compound to set a time of 1min 42.685secs, the 12th quickest time of the session.
Vitaly Petrov was less fortunate as his session was shortened due to a steering column problem, and the engine lost power after his two fastest laps. He still ended up 13th courtesy of a lap of 1min 43.118secs and his car will be ready for FP2.
Fastest in FP1 was McLaren’s Jenson Button with a time of 1m 40.263secs.
PRACTICE TWO
Vitaly Petrov, R31-06
P13, 1:41.947, 31 laps
Bruno Senna, R31-04
P15, 1:42.369, 36 laps
With the track temperature eleven degrees cooler, Lotus Renault GP started the second session in the early evening at the Yas Marina Circuit. Vitaly and Bruno had to change their visor strip to be ready for driving at dusk.
On the yellow-marked soft tyres, Vitaly and Bruno managed times of 1min 41.947secs and 1min 42.369secs.
As for Vitaly, he was pretty happy with the work he completed and felt that the changes made between the two sessions were an improvement. He was also pleased to have done 31 laps in total, providing the engineers with lots of data with which to try and make further improvements overnight.
The team will need to anticipate how the track temperature will change between final practice and qualifying tomorrow because it is likely to have quite a big impact on car balance.
Lewis Hamilton topped the leaderboard, as he headed the field with a 1min 39.586 secs, ahead of team mate Jenson Button in second.
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