Trulli makes Lotus debut as team end test on positive note

KUALA LUMPUR: Italian Jarno Trulli finally took to the tracks as Lotus Racing Team ended their four-day test on a positive note at the Jerez circuit in Spain on Saturday.

Trulli, making his Lotus debut, started off at 9am – aiming to complete 140 laps.

The Italian finally pitted at around 4.40pm – completing 141 laps – much to the satisfaction of his team.

McLaren’s Jenson Button leapt to the top of the timesheets as this week’s test drew to a close.

Button lapped the Spanish circuit in 1:18.871 to finish over two-tenths of a second ahead of Robert Kubica in the Renault.

The British world champion spent the day evaluating set-ups and assessing tyre durability in the MP4-25, and covered 108 laps while Poland’s Kubica completed 117 laps, as he carried out long runs in his R30.

For Lotus, the target had been to get as much mileage on the car as possible. Trulli’s best lap time was 1:23.470.

Trulli said it was a good day all round and that the car felt good, with no immediate problems.

“It was a very positive day. I’m really happy about my first day testing with Lotus Racing and I was very lucky to have everything right on the car,” he said.

“With no major issues, we were able to put a lot of mileage on the car and get a lot of information out of it.

“I had the chance to start developing a real feel for the car and it’s good to be here.”

Lotus Racing chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne summed up the final day in Jerez, and the total four days in Spain, as an excellent outing.

“An excellent day today (Saturday), concentrating on reliability and race pace. The 141 laps from Jarno is a great effort when you consider it’s his first day driving this year,” he said.

“It was also a great effort from the team who worked all night to get the car prepared. Overall, it’s been a very encouraging four days.

“The main aim of the test was reliability and over the last two days of dry running, we have found some directions in set-up that will enable us to concentrate on the pace of the car in Barcelona.”

The teams will move their testing to Barcelona this weekend as they get ready for the opening race in Bahrain on March 14.

Apart from Lotus, the other new teams this year are Virgin, Campos and US F1.

While Virgin and Lotus have been among the slowest this week, they are confident about their progress while Campos and US F1 have yet to test or complete their line-ups.

Campos restructured their ownership and recruited the experienced Colin Kolles as team principal on Friday but US F1’s chances of making Bahrain look remote amid media reports they have asked to miss the first four races of the season.

Serbian team Stefan GP say they are ready to step in despite not having a 2010 entry.