Lotus pair target best chance at Valencia

Date published : 21 Jun 2012 - 21:19:15

Romain Grosjean believes this weekend's European Grand Prix could be Lotus' best chance to take their first victory of the season.

The 26-year-old has been amongst the frontrunners at many races this year, and took his second podium of the season two weeks ago when he soared to second place in the dying laps of the Canadian Grand Prix.

In spite of this, the British-based team are not one of the five teams to have already won a race this year.

However, the combination of hot weather that is expected in Valencia and his car's tyre-friendly setup, has left the Frenchman, now seventh in the drivers' standings, feeling very optimistic.

"It's always difficult to make predictions before you've done free practice or even qualifying," he said.

"Things can change quite quickly but on paper we are looking good. The car is good, it's hot and that's a good point for us.

"Hopefully we can keep this advantage and the other teams didn't find a way to make it work when it's too hot, and we can have a good chance."

Although the team have been fast during the races, neither Grosjean nor team-mate Kimi Raikkonen have challenged for pole during qualifying.

Grosjean is hoping, however, that his team will find a way of improving their one-lap performance without sacrificing race pace.

"It's possible to have a good car in qualifying and then a good car in the race," he said.

"I hope I'm not wrong and that on Saturday we can show that we are working towards getting a podium in the race. We need to still carry race pace and be better in qualifying."

Raikkonen, the 2007 champion, admitted that despite being sixth in the standings, and having finished on the podium twice, he was left feeling bitter-sweet having been in a position to win earlier in the season.

"Of course when you get the good results and you get close then you get disappointed that you don't win," said the Finn.

"But then if you had asked before the season if they had been happy with these results they would definitely have been."

Looking ahead to Sunday's race, the cautious Finn added: "We always try to win, but it's not easy. We don't know how well we are going to do. We will see tomorrow and bit and then Saturday. Hopefully we can be up there on Sunday."