Lotus recorded a season best result during the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka with their rivals crashing out around them in the early stages. The race weekend began controversially with Saturdays qualifying being postponed due to poor weather conditions, with the session being held on Sunday morning. Lotus recorded a steady if unspectacular qualifying session, being the fastest of the new teams in the first knockout qualifying session. The rather pedestrian qualifying session would hold no clues to the drama which would unfold during the race, with Trulli and Kovalainen starting the Grand Prix 19th and 20th respectively.

Within the first few laps chaos ensued throughout the pack with Petrov, Massa, Liuzzi, Hulkenberg and De Grassi all retiring on the first lap in three separate incidents. For Renault the race would get a lot worse with Kubica losing a wheel just a lap later, allowing Kovalainen and Trulli to climb the field during the opening laps with the Italian utililising the safety car period to use his mandatory pit stop in the early stages.

In the early laps the Lotus drivers struggled to reach any higher than 17th and 18th with Suzuka’s technical design proving to be difficult to create overtaking opportunities. However despite Trulli and Kovalainen’s difficulties the race was still creating moments of drama further up the field. By lap 45 Force India had lost both cars as Adrian Sutil’s engine expired in a cloud of smoke, gifting the Lotus drivers another place in the running order. In the subsequent laps Rosberg, Yamamoto, Senna and Glock would all retire with various problems ending their race. The end result to the chaos was a season best finish for Kovalainen and Trulli in 12th and 13th respectively with Lotus being the only new team to safely bring both cars to the finish over the 53 lap race distance.

The result marks a progression for Lotus in a difficult opening year with the team coming closest to a points finish, thanks to a depleted field of drivers, the next race should promise an even playing field as Korea hosts its first Formula One Grand Prix. Every driver and team will face a new challenge with the Yeongam circuit as it makes its official debut on the Formula One calendar, with the first practice and qualifying sessions set to be a learning curve for all the drivers. The demands of the circuit could bring some surprises during qualifying and on race day with teams needing to master the circuit relatively quickly to have any chance of a podium finish.

Lotus will want the good results to continue during the final three races to establish the team for the 2011 campaign and perhaps the start of points finishes come the business end of 2011. For now the team will celebrate a job well done in Japan and consider what lies ahead in Korea.

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