Romain Grosjean endured a quiet race in Japan to come home in seventh and one place ahead of teammate Pastor Maldonado, while the rest of his Lotus team were not allowed access to hospitality units, amid mounting speculation over the team’s future in the sport.
Lotus managed to finish with two cars in the top eight for the first time since the 2013 Indian Grand Prix, a feat not lost on Grosjean, although the Frenchman would inevitably dwell on his own failure to score more points
“We finished with both cars in the points so I’m definitely happy with that! When it came to my own race we were a little bit slow against the Force India. We tried to fight Nico Hulkenberg but couldn’t.”
Grosjean backed up his frustrations by alluding to the changes in tyre pressures enforced by Pirelli, who raised them by 2 PSI in order to cope with the demands of the high-speed Suzuka circuit, accompanied by a philosophical word of congratulations to his cash-strapped team.
“I really struggled with the tyres at the end – it seems the new Pirelli limits hurt us more than our rivals so we’ll work around that for the next race. Overall though, we’ve had a good result as a team.”
The result means that the 29-year old moves ahead of Force India’s Sergio Perez in the Drivers’ Championship, and moves the Enstone squad further away from Toro Rosso and to within 17 points of fifth place Force India.
