Tony Fernandes says Lotus has no excuse for reliability glitches

Jarno Trulli had to park his car with a gearbox problem during last weekend's Singapore Grand Prix - an event that saw the Italian racing with the Toro Rossos and Renaults before being hit by Jaime Alguersuari, and Heikki Kovalainen beat Vitaly Petrov's Renault in the straight fight.

But Fernandes said that while he was overjoyed with Lotus's performance in Singapore, Trulli's mechanical failure showed that there will still areas where the team had to raise its game.

"I said after Singapore that that grand prix was just about our strongest ever race performance, and having been through the post-race reports it is very pleasing to see that our pace has definitely improved as a direct result of the upgrade package we brought out there," said Fernandes.

"Jarno suffered again with bad luck, but the reliability issue that ended his race is still something we need to improve on - we may be small and we may not have the facilities of the teams ahead of us, but that does not mean our standards should be any lower than them, so we have to make sure in Japan, and at the remaining races, that we are a two car team that can help us guarantee 10th place this year.

"That is a reasonable aim and one everyone in the team is working very hard to achieve."

Trulli said he was simply hoping for better fortune in Japan.

"I'd just like to have a race without some of the bad luck that struck again in Singapore," he said.

"I'd had such a good start and was holding off the Toro Rosso and both Renaults well, even running 11th at one point as we went into the first round of stops, but the puncture I suffered when Alguersuari hit me was just another one of those things. Hopefully in Suzuka I can make up for that and get as much out of the car as I did on Sunday around Marina Bay."