Jerome d'Ambrosio deserves F1 chance, says Lotus boss Eric Boullier

The Belgian, who became Lotus's reserve this season after losing his Virgin (now Marussia) seat to Charles Pic, stood in for the banned Romain Grosjean at Monza and finished 13th from 16th on the grid despite losing KERS early on.

Although Lotus is set to keep Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean in its race seats for 2013, Boullier believes rivals would be foolish not to consider d'Ambrosio.

"I think if any team had a doubt about him they will understand now that he is fast and can be very serious and professional and deserves his place in Formula 1," Boullier told AUTOSPORT.

He added: "He has been good. Any team principal should look at his pace.

"In the second half of the race he was clearly matching the pace of all the cars in front of him.

"He didn't put a foot wrong and he was professional and it was a very impressive weekend."

The Monza outing was d'Ambrosio's first race since the end of 2012. He had previously tested the Lotus E20 at Mugello.

Grosjean will return to the second Lotus race seat in Singapore this weekend.