Romain, your first visit to Montréal and you found yourself in P2 at the chequered flag; it must have been a great feeling?
I’m really happy and it’s a great result for the team. It was an incredible race, and not easy at all to make sure the one stop strategy worked. We were a bit disappointed after qualifying so we chose an aggressive approach to the race. I’ve learnt a lot about the track this weekend so hopefully next time we come here we can be fighting at the front from the start and maybe even go one place better!
That second stint was quite something; how difficult was it to get fifty laps out of the soft tyres?
It was quite tough to be honest. You want to push as hard as you can all the time to catch the guys in front, but at the same time you know the main thing is to focus on your driving and manage the tyres until the end of the race. It was especially tricky when I was fighting with Nico [Rosberg] and Mark [Webber] as I didn’t know if they would be stopping again. It was hard to stop myself trying to attack and get past but in the end we made the call to be patient and luckily it paid off!
Do you think the higher temperatures helped the performance of the E20?
Warmer conditions suit us better for sure, but we also learned a lot about how the car behaves at the Montréal circuit as the weekend went on so it was a combination of the weather and plenty of hard work with the team. I want to thank all of the guys; they really put everything into getting a good result and it showed in the race.
With a second podium of the season so far now under your belt, can you carry this momentum on to the next race in Valencia?
I hope so! I like the Valencia circuit; it’s a nice track and it also brings back good memories of my Formula 1 debut back in 2009. The conditions there are normally quite warm which will suit the E20 nicely, so let’s see what we can do!
Source: LotusF1team
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