Grosjean aims to unlock single-lap pace ahead of qualifying for the European GP
| By Jonathan Noble |
Friday, June 22nd 2012, 16:43 GMT |
 Romain Grosjean says the focus for his Lotus team in final practice in Valencia is to unlock much-needed qualifying pace from its car - after his long-run form on Friday left rivals in no doubt about how strong his team will be in the race.
Lotus had headed into the Valencia event as favourite to deliver an eighth different winner this weekend – with the team well aware that it needs to get Grosjean or team-mate Kimi Raikkonen near the front of the grid if it is to deliver just that.
And after an impressive performance in practice on Friday showing just how good the E20 will be around Valencia over the race distance, Grosjean says the key now will be working out how to extract more speed on Saturday without it compromising its chances for Sunday.
"The car looks good on the long run, on high fuel, so that is good for the race and now we need to get that extra bit for qualifying," he explained.
When asked about the feeling on the single-lap potential, Grosjean said: "In P2 it is always difficult to go from prime tyres to option tyres and get the best straightaway. There is more to come from the driving, and maybe from the car a little bit tomorrow. We have a few ideas we want to work on, and let's see if it is going to work tomorrow afternoon.
"If you work more on qualifying, then you work less on the race. But we have seen that from seventh [on the grid] we can finish second or third. So it is not the end of the world if we don't qualify very well, but for sure tomorrow morning we are going to work a little bit more on that."
Although making set-up changes to specifically improve qualifying performance would likely be at the detriment of race form, Grosjean thinks his team can find a way of improving its potential in the battle for pole position.
"Hopefully we can not disturb our race pace and get a good qualifying pace, and that is what we are trying to do," he said. "Let's see if we can do that here."
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