JULY 2, 2012

Grosjean Bullish for Silverstone

Despite the formidable pace shown by Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull in Valencia, Romain Grosjean is confident that a Lotus win is not far away.

Despite the formidable pace shown by Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull in Valencia, Romain Grosjean is confident that a Lotus win is not far away.

The Frenchman was running a strong second in Spain when an alternator problem intervened at two-thirds distance.

"I think we head to Silverstone with more confidence," Grosjean said. "We understand a few more things with the car. It was good to have a really hot weekend all the way through at Valencia and we were able to work on the car and really analyse things."

Despite the fact that the F1 teams are unlikely to experience similar conditions in Northamptosnhire this weekend, Grosjan adds: "Silverstone is very high speed and I'm confident we'll have strong pace, which should lead to a good race."

Grosjean won on the new Silverstone layout in GP2 and says he's learning all the time, Valencia being his first experience of a Safety Car period, for example. He also knows that if the car breaks at Silverstone, he's unlikely to spend the next 20 laps spectating under a burning sun, as happened in Spain.

"That was almost as frustrating as the car cutting out!" he says. "I couldn't discuss with the engineers what had gone wrong and I had to watch the rest of the race stranded out on the track; at least my chair was comfortable! You just want to return to the pits, talk to the crew and help with the rest of the race. I'm looking forward to better luck at Silverstone, which is one of the quickest tracks of the year. It's challenging but with a good feel."