Lotus team principal Tony Fernandes has said he doesn't expect the team to have found any more lap time at the Turkish Grand Prix, as it focuses on an updated for Spain.
Lotus have been getting gradually closer to the midfield over the first three races of the season, culminating in Heikki Kovalainen beating Pastor Maldonado's Williams on outright pace in China. Fernandes, however, played down much further progress in Istanbul, saying that the development of the car would see major updates introduced at the following race.
"We have begun this season in the style we wanted to, making steady progress towards the midfield teams and I am hopeful we will continue to do that in Turkey," Fernandes said. "The next step forward should come in Spain where we have a number of significant updates on the cars, but for Turkey we will look to build on the improved reliability and pace we showed in China and work on maximising the mechanical and aero package we have on the T128.
We have realistic expectations for this weekend, I am not expecting us to have found another chunk of time here as we have been focusing on the Barcelona race for the update package, but I am very confident about the future as the foundations for the long-term success of this team are being laid exactly as planned."
Jarno Trulli said he was hoping to maximise the setup of the car, and that time on the track in the lead up to qualifying was crucial to Lotus's ability to challenge the midfield.
"Turkey's another chance for us to keep growing as a team and after the short break we've had it'll be good to get back into the car. The team's been hard at work on the aero updates we'll introduce at the Spanish Grand Prix and on a couple of mechanical fixes that will give me a better platform to really push on from. I want to make sure we can repeat the performance we showed in China and that relies on us having an error free Friday and Saturday and giving us the best chance to fight with the likes of Williams, Force India and Sauber."
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