Nick Heidfeld saves the furniture in Valencia

The heat must certainly have been too much for Lotus-Renault GP that took a nosedive in the rankings in the Valencia race. While Vitaly Petrov failed at the gate of Q3, Nick Heidfeld did not take part in the last session, preferring to save his soft tires for the race. This strategy unfortunately proved ineffective. Starting ninth, the German passed Adrian Sutil and Jaime Alguersuari to finish the GP in tenth position.

The race started badly for Nick Heidfeld who was passed at the start by the VJM 04 of Adrian Sutil. “My departure caused me a little harm”, recognizes the German. “I lost a position with Adrian and I had to fight not to lose others. I managed to regain my position, but he used DRS to overtake me again and I was no longer able to attack him. It's still another point for the team, but I didn't expect to finish behind a Force India and a Toro Rosso »

Nick Heidfeld hopes to see his team recover at Silverstone, even if most of the paddock believe Lotus-Renault GP will be handicapped by the limitation on blown exhausts. “We remain optimistic because Silverstone is a circuit with a lot of high-speed corners and our car works well with these conditions », adds the Lotus-Renault GP driver. “We will also see how the new regulations will affect our car, but I think it will have a positive impact for the team. »

Find the report of the European GP in the next issue of AUTOhebdo, on sale next Wednesday.