Lotus owner Gerard Lopez believes that the team was unfortunate not to win last weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix, lamenting traffic which stopped Kimi Raikkonen’s charge early on.
Raikkonen utilized a three-stop strategy at the Circuit de Catalunya in order to jump the likes of Sebastian Vettel and Felipe Massa during the race, but he still finished a full 9 seconds behind race winner Fernando Alonso on Sunday. However, Lopez has great faith in the team following a strong start to the season.
“We thought there was a way to win it. We lost the race right at the beginning when Fernando and Vettel were able to jump Hamilton and we got stuck a couple of times in traffic. That’s where we lost the race, and other than that, it was very good,” Lopez told Adam Cooper. “The car is super consistent, and it was fast on both tyres.”
When asked about the rest of the field, Lopez highlighted Ferrari as being the front-runners following their fine performance at last weekend’s race, and he also revealed his surprise at Red Bull’s form in Spain.
“I was a bit surprised by the Red Bulls. Spain was an important race, everybody’s going to throw what they have at the car.
“I think Mercedes we expected to be fast on one lap. The Ferrari is probably the strongest car right now. Red Bull maybe a little bit below where we expected them.”
Lotus has certainly made a good start to the season, currently sitting P3 in the constructors’ championship and Kimi Raikkonen leads their drivers’ title charge, just four points behind Vettel at the top. Lopez has every reason to be pleased with his team, and they will be keen on continuing this form into the rest of the season.
