Lotus perplexed by lack of race pace

Editor

Lotus' technical bosses are scratching their heads after the E23 failed to replicate its qualifying pace in the Canadian Grand Prix.

The Enstone squad were third fastest behind Mercedes and Ferrari during qualifying with Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado starting fifth and sixth respectively.

However, they didn't carry that form over to the Sunday as both Williams cars finished ahead of them with Felipe Massa coming from the back of the grid to take P6 ahead of Maldonado with Grosjean scoring just one point after clipping the Manor of Will Stevens.

Lotus head of trackside operations Alan Permane admits they are puzzled about their lack of pace during the race.

"It's almost the opposite of normal," he told Autosport.

"We were a little surprised by how close we were in qualifying to be honest.

"Honestly, I don't know. I expected to be a bit closer [in the race], but it became apparent very early on.

"It wasn't anything to do with saving brakes, or tyres, or anything like that – we weren't really saving fuel honestly.

"I don't expect we were in much better or worse shape than anyone.

"It's difficult to understand why we were relatively better in qualifying than the race, but we'll have a look and try and understand it.

"It may well be that here we just managed to turn the tyres on well for that one lap.

"We'll probably never really get to the bottom of it, but we'll try and understand it."