Czech Team Lotus convinced itself about the great speed of their cars during the opening weekend at Monza, but a technique and an unfortunate coincidence were against.
Marco Sørensen could not use the maximum power of his engine on saturday and someone punctured his rear tire after the start in sunday race when he made it from ninth to fifth position. Marlon Stockinger also suffered from a number of technical problems, but after the start from the back, the Filipino very mature worked his way forward, even though it was his debut in Formula Renault 3.5.
Lotus is now fading for race at Motorland Aragón, to which has mixed memories. They were reaching out for the gold already during the last year season-opening race. Marco Sørensen qualified in an excellent second place for sunday’s race and after a great start immediately took the lead and gradually increased the lead. But after nine laps he had to stop due to electronics.
The second Formula Renault 3.5 weekend will take place at Motorland Aragón during the opening meeting of the World Series by Renault, 27th to 28th April.
Marco Sørensen: “Honestly, at this point there is not much to say. I hope that all the bad luck we had in Monza and now it will only get better. Certainly, we have the speed.”
Marlon Stockinger: “First of all I would like to colect some points at Motorland. In my opinion we have one of the fastest cars, which might help a lot for qualifying. But in the race especially we must avoid technical problems. In that case, I hope it will be good. Everyone in the team is working very hard.”
Robert Vavřík, team manager: “During the break between Monza and Motorland we have done everything to make sure we will get where we belong, because at Monza, the results did not match our potencial. If Marco had no problems, he was clocking lap times in top5. We were also trying a lot of pit stops. But before we will be on the top, where we should be, I do not want to make any hasty conclusions.”