Lotus' Kovalainen ended a wet first day of practice for the Brazilian GP with the 4th fastest time

Heikki Kovalainen (FP1: P9, 1:26.133, 31 laps / FP2: P4, 1:28.129, 13 laps): “Obviously, it was challenging conditions but it was good for me to get the experience in the wet weather.

There were no big surprises and the car was behaving quite well. It was a little bit trickier than driving in the dry, but we expected this. That said, I think the team have made good progress in this area as it wasn’t too difficult to drive. There are still a couple of areas where we can improve on, and whether we have valid information for tomorrow’s weather we don’t know yet.”

Romain Grosjean (FP1: 1: P13, 1:26.570, 28 laps / FP2: P10, 1:28.891, 12 laps): “It wasn’t perfect weather and we still have some progress to make on the wet set-up for conditions like we had today. In the morning it was a struggle for grip with too much understeer, but we made progress in this area for the afternoon and have a few ideas about how we can improve further for tomorrow. It’s certainly a challenge with the spray and standing water, but despite this it’s still awesome to be driving around Interlagos.”

Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: “We’ve gained strong data using both of Pirelli’s wet tyres. Romain wasn’t happy with his set-up in the morning, but he was much happier in the afternoon. Heikki continues to get comfortable with the car and in the team and showed great pace in the wet in the afternoon with the fourth quickest time. We’re happy with today’s work.”

Lotus F1 Team