Hispania Racing, HRT F1 Team was able to finish the race with both cars for the fourth time this season. The Spanish team is improving race by race and achieved the second two car finish in a row. Karun Chandhok finished in 19th position and his teammate Sakon Yamamoto ended up 20th at his first Formula 1 race since 2007. The Japanese driver’s debut with Hispania Racing, HRT F1 Team, was positive and he could soon set a good race pace close behind Karun Chandhok, who showed a good race performance, too. Now, the Spanish team is hoping for a win at the football world cup final and the car had the “Vamos España” stickers on again.

Dr Colin Kolles, Team Principal:
“We are very happy with the result as today we could finish with two cars for the fourth time this season. Karun Chandhok and Sakon Yamamoto started on option tyres into the race as we found out that this tyre compound was the best for a long run. Our pit stop was quite late and we changed on prime tyres. Sakon showed a good performance during the race after being back in a Formula 1 car for many years. All in all, we had a trouble free race and I want to thank the team for doing a great job the whole weekend.”

Karun Chandhok, Race driver #20:
“The race was pretty much as we expected to be honest. We weren’t really in a position to race with others so I pushed early on to open about 15 seconds gap to Sakon. After the pit stop, I ran over some debris which damaged the barge board and the side pod on my car costing downforce. So after the safety car it was all about just managing the damage and the gap to Sakon. Another double finish for the team and that’s about all we can expect at the moment.”

Sakon Yamamoto, Race driver #21:
“I am very happy that the team achieved its target, another two car finish. It was a good experience for me to race in Formula 1 again. I could improve all over the weekend and got a better feeling for the car. I want to thank the team for giving me the chance to race here in Silverstone. I could show that I am prepared to be back in the cockpit and whenever I’ll get the opportunity to race again, I will take it. I also want to thank my fans who always supported me over the years. It was a very special and exciting weekend for me.”

Weather: Sunny – air temperature 22°C, track temperature 39°C
Race: 52 laps
Track length: 5.891 km

Karun Chandhok          F110-03 #20        19th
Sakon Yamamoto        F110-02 #21        20th

Hispania Racing, HRT F1 Team, had a day without technical issues at its tenth race of its history at the legendary Silverstone circuit. The Spanish team wants to show its support of the Spanish football team in tomorrow’s world cup final by putting a “Vamos España” sticker on both cars. Karun Chandhok qualified 23rd with a best lap time of 1.36.576 and his team mate Sakon Yamamoto is starting from position 24 (1.36.968) into tomorrow’s 52 laps race. Before, in the morning session, everything worked well. The Indian (22nd) clocked a best lap time of 1.36.286 and the Japanese was 24th (1.37.178).

Dr Colin Kolles, Team Principal:
“It was a difficult day for us but everyone in the team did a great job. The changing crosswinds had effects on the car balance. In qualifying, we had a small balance problem on the rear end of Sakon Yamamoto’s car which didn’t allow us to go quicker. Karun Chandhok was unlucky on his second outing when he was disturbed by traffic. Otherwise he could have done a quicker lap. For Sakon it is not easy to start into the season without having raced since 2007. There are many small details like how to use or heat the tyres that he has to learn about. But Sakon is improving every lap and as there are 52 laps to go in the race tomorrow, he can show a good performance. All in all, we could work on the set-up for the race and are confident, to fight for positions with the other teams on Sunday.”

Karun Chandhok, Race driver #20:
“I had quite a messy run with traffic which was really frustrating. We lost about four tenths on the first run when I was in traffic on my quickest lap. Then on the second run, I had a lot of traffic on the out lap and couldn’t get the tyres in the window. It’s a shame because we had the potential to go at least half a second faster. Considering that I was faster this morning in FP3 I think I could have been quicker without the traffic. It’s going to be a long hard race tomorrow with the high loads on the tyres and the bumps and we’ll do the best job we can.”

Sakon Yamamoto, Race driver #21:
“Yesterday, it was a memorial day for me in my life being back in Formula 1 on my birthday. I am very pleased about the qualifying result even though it was a bit difficult because of changing wind directions. I like this circuit because it is very challenging for the driver and the new track layout is also quite interesting. We expected to go a bit quicker but the car balance was slightly changing compared to the morning session. We will have to find it out for tomorrow. I am looking forward to the race and I am going to do as best as I could to give something back to the team.”

Lotus Racing outclassed the other new teams in Saturday’s qualifying session at the British Grand Prix, Heikki Kovalainen finishing 19th and Jarno Trulli 21st, after an exciting session which showed the team’s upgrade package has kept them at the front of the pack chasing the midfield teams. The team enjoyed a royal visit just before qualifying, HRH Prince Andrew The Duke of York stopping by the Lotus Racing garage and being shown around by Team Principal Tony Fernandes and Chief Technical Officer Mike Gascoyne.

Heikki Kovalainen (Chassis T127-01) Qualified 19th, 1.34.405, 9 laps “I’m pleased because I’m in the position I targeted for qualifying, but even though we’re the fastest of the new teams, that wasn’t my best qualifying session this year. It was pretty tricky out there today – it was windier than in FP3 and I found the balance wasn’t quite where it had been this morning. Nevertheless, we’re in a good position and good shape for tomorrow. The car feels good on the heavier fuel load, so I think we’ll be ok. I also want to say that Jarno did a great job out there – to be within half a second after the bad luck he’s had all weekend is great, and I hope we can get both cars home tomorrow. That’s the main goal, so let’s see what happens.”

Jarno Trulli (Chassis T127-04) Qualified 21st, 1.34.864, 10 laps “I’m pretty happy with my result to be honest – I managed to learn the circuit very quickly, almost having to do so during qualifying as the problems I had on Friday and Saturday meant I’ve had very little time on track! Qualifying was the first time I managed to really push the car, as a hydraulics problem had cut short FP3, so, overall, I’m happy and my position is better than I expected.”

Mike Gascoyne, Chief Technical Officer “I have mixed feelings after qualifying. Again we had some mechanical problems with Jarno this morning, which meant that going into qualifying he had only completed 12 laps over the whole weekend on the new circuit layout, so he had a very difficult task in front of him and did a good job to be as close in time to his team mate as he was.

“Heikki had traffic on both his runs, which was a shame as he could have got a little more out of the car had he had a clear run, but he was ahead of the other new teams so that’s a positive. Overall it’s been quite a difficult weekend so far but we’re looking forward to the race tomorrow and are focusing on getting both cars to the finish.”

Tony Fernandes, Team Principal “We did as well as we could have expected with not a lot of running this weekend, but well done to Heikki who probably could have gone faster if he had not hit so much traffic. Jarno did exceptionally well, having only run a few laps all weekend, and that’s what his pace, experience and knowledge gives us. It was great to see the Lotus Racing flags in the crowd, and a lot of green and yellow shirts and caps. Tomorrow, hopefully, we can make them proud, bring two cars home and put on a show worthy of the efforts of the team.”

AirAsia X officially announced a partnership with Lotus Racing, during the world famous British Grand Prix held at the home of British Motor Racing, Silverstone from 9 – 11 July.

AirAsia X CEO, Azran Osman-Rani and Lotus Racing CEO, Riad Asmat were on hand for the photo call at the Lotus Racing garage along with drivers Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen. Next to them was the Lotus Racing T127 displaying the freshly placed AirAsia logos on the car.

This announcement is very timely, given that AirAsia X flies directly to a number of destinations where races take place in the current Formula 1™ calendar such as the UK (via Stansted), Melbourne, Malaysia and Shanghai (via Hangzhou). Soon, Korea and Japan can be added to the list as the destinations are soon to be a part of the airline’s rapid growth.

Commenting on the partnership, Azran states, “Teaming up with Lotus Racing is an exciting step for AirAsia X. We admire Lotus Racing as a team which always strives for excellence, a trait similar to that of AirAsia X. Furthermore, as we expand our route network, it is essential that we build our global platform, and a great way to do so is via involvement in Formula One™. Particularly in our upcoming markets of Korea and Japan later this year, and France in early 2011, all of which host legs on the Formula One™ calendar.

“There were people who once doubted AirAsia X’s low cost long haul model, questioning whether it could survive in the current global travel market. We proved them wrong by becoming one of the best in the world! Lotus Racing too had their fair share of skepticism. No one thought the team could even make it to the grid in such a short period of time, let alone be worthy contenders on the track. But they silenced the critics not only by producing the cars on time for the race season, but also by becoming serious contenders in the competition. There’s a lot that we can learn from each other, and we look forward to this relationship with Lotus Racing, taking AirAsia X further into the realms of sports sponsorship,” Azran said.

Riad Asmat, Lotus Racing CEO, added his thoughts, saying: “We are extremely proud to welcome AirAsia X into the Lotus Racing family and are very excited about working together in partnership over the coming seasons. We are both growing fast, and the natural synergies between our two companies will provide us with many very exciting opportunities for Lotus Racing fans and AirAsia X passengers alike – frankly, we can’t wait to get started!”

Partnerships such as with the UK British MotoGP in June (the inaugural AirAsia British Grand Prix), also held at Silverstone, is another example of how powerful sports sponsorships can be as both branding and commercial tools for AirAsia.

AirAsia X’s relationship with sports sponsorship began in 2009 with the announcement of being ‘Proud Sponsors’ of the Oakland Raiders, one of the most prolific teams in the National Football League (NFL) in the United States. The airline also sponsors the Gold Coast Airport Marathon which took place earlier this month, with CEO Azran leading a team of 20 staff runners, as well as providing sponsorship to two runners from Cambodia and Singapore in a bid to enhance the accessibility of Australia to all ASEAN communities through use of their sister airline, low-cost short-haul AirAsia.

Sports sponsorship is very important to AirAsia and AirAsia X, being the most homogeneous mass market which unites countless communities. Through sports sponsorship, AirAsia and AirAsia X is able to not only fulfill the larger vision of the airline by making dreams come true, but also to establish its brand’s equity value – a significant part of its branding effort, enabling AirAsia to become a household brand.

About AirAsia and AirAsia X
AirAsia, the leading and largest low-cost carrier in Asia, services the most extensive network with approximately 132 routes covering destinations in Asia, Australia and Europe. Within 8 years of operations, AirAsia has carried more than 92 million guests and grown its fleet from just two aircraft to approximately 96. The airline today is proud to be a truly Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) airline with established operations based in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand, servicing a network stretching across all Asean countries, China, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Australia. This is further complemented by AirAsia X, its low-cost long-haul affiliate carrier that currently flies to destinations in China, Australia, Taipei and the UK. AirAsia is the regional carrier with the largest destination network and highest flight frequencies. AirAsia was named World’s Best Low Cost Airline in the annual World Airline Survey by Skytrax for two consecutive years in 2009 and 2010.

The fastest new team in Formula One™ is delighted to announce that Dell™ has joined our Official Technical Supplier roster. Innovation and technology have been at the heart of Formula One™ since its inception. To compete effectively in today’s modern era, teams need best in class partners in order to accelerate on and off-track development.

Dell’s technology solutions have already been integrated across the company to form a robust infrastructure to support the business. This solution is comprised of:

- Dedicated supercomputer hardware and software to power the team’s Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) systems, used to simulate aerodynamic behaviour in a virtual environment

- The latest Dell PowerEdgeTM servers and a network infrastructure to meet all the team’s factory requirements and offer top security

- Trackside servers and a network infrastructure to run all computer requirements on-site at races and tests

- Cutting edge notebooks supported by Dell SaaS to enable end user computing on-the-go

Bill Peters, Lotus Racing’s Head of IT: “One of the first priorities in creating our team from the ground up was to identify a technology partner who could provide a variety of IT solutions for us as soon as possible, and one who could be flexible enough to meet our demands both at the factory and at the track. With less than 22 weeks build time, that’s a big ask, but Dell were our only choice for the role. Dell delivered in terms of hardware, software and most importantly in terms of support and adaptability. I am very pleased that the mission critical work we have done together over the past six months can formally be recognised today on the eve of the British Grand Prix.”

Stephen Murdoch, VP & GM of Large Enterprise, EMEA, Dell: “We’re thrilled to be working with Lotus Racing to provide a high performance and reliable end-to-end IT solution to help drive the business both on and off the track. What we’ve already achieved together in a short period of time has been phenomenal and we are excited about the role Dell can play in supporting the organization’s future growth enabling Lotus Racing to focus on what it does best – achieve excellence in racing.”

At the tenth race of its short history, Hispania Racing, HRT F1 Team, made its debut at the “Home of British Motor Racing” in Silverstone. In the morning session, Karun Chandhok ended up on position 22 clocking a best lap time of 1.38.735 and his teammate Sakon Yamamoto, who is celebrating his 28th birthday today, finished 24th with a lap time of 1.39.673. Both drivers could improve their lap times in the second practice and in total, the Indian and the Japanese added 107 laps on the team’s tally. At the end of the afternoon session, Karun Chandhok was 22nd (1.37.019) and Sakon Yamamoto 23rd (1.38.303).

After the second practice, Bruno Senna said that he respects the team’s reasons, thanked for the support and is now looking forward to get back to his seat in the German GP at Hockenheim in two weeks.

Dr Colin Kolles, Team Principal:
“’We are quite happy with our performance today. Everything worked well and with the small technical changes we could improve our cars. Both of our drivers, Karun Chandhok and Sakon Yamamoto, could do many laps in the practice sessions. Sakon showed a good performance as well even tough not being in a Formula 1 car for many years. It was the first time for him to drive on the option tyres and it was not easy for him to improve his lap times on this tyre. But now he knows how the tyres are working and he is prepared for the next sessions.”

Karun Chandhok, Race driver #20:
“It was a very productive day for me today. We did a lot of work with the suspension to improve the car over the bumps. This afternoon especially we made some good progress with the rear end and were able to do a good comparison between the two tyre compounds. Our gap to the other teams is about where we expected coming into the weekend so let’s see how tomorrow goes. I always enjoy driving around Silverstone and despite the bumps it was fun to drive here in a Formula 1 car for the first time.”

Sakon Yamamoto, Race driver #21:
“It was a brilliant day for me being back in Formula 1 since 2007, especially as it is my birthday today. It is the first time for me to run on a Friday afternoon after I was running for Hispania Racing, HRT F1 Team in Istanbul in practice session one. Today, we could follow our program and everything was going quite well. I tried to understand the differences between the prime and the option tyres because it is the first time for me to drive on the option tyre. But we are well prepared for tomorrow.”

Jaypee Sports International (JPSI) agreed to a partnership with Hispania Racing´s, HRT F1 Team´s driver Karun Chandhok starting with this week´s  British Formula 1 Grand Prix. Hispania Racing´s, HRT F1 Team´s race car will carry the Jaypee Group logo.JPSI, a Jaypee Group company, is currently constructing a 5.14km long first world-class motor racing circuit near Greater Noida, at a distance of about 40km from New Delhi. This circuit is expected to host the inaugural F1 race in India in October/November 2011.

Hispania Racing’s Karun Chandhok will act as Brand Ambassador for Jaypee, endorsing the Group, its brands and its products. Jaypee Group will also have exclusive rights to sell Hispania Racing and Karun Chandhok merchandise in Uttar Pradesh and the National Capital Region (NCR).

Karun Chandhok, who currently drives for the Spanish Hispania Racing, HRT F1 Team and is the only Indian driver of the F1 grid, won the Formula Asia Championship in 2001 and the Formula Asia V6 Renault Championship in 2006. Before entering F1, Karun drove in the GP2 Series for three years, winning two races.

José Ramón Carabante, Hispania Racing, HRT F1 Team owner: “We are very pleased to have a new company sponsoring us and supporting Formula 1. And the fact that next year India is expected to host a Formula 1 race also makes us happy. We want to welcome Jaypee Sports International to our team and hope we work positively together”.

Shri Sameer Gaur, Managing Director, JPSI: “We are very happy to be sponsoring Karun Chandhok in Formula 1. He is a talented racing driver and deserves all the support that we can provide. Apart from establishing our commitment towards F1, we also hope this move will provide a flip to the popularity of F1 racing in India and build excitement for the first F1 race that we hope to host in the country towards the end of next year.”

Mr Mark Hughes, Vice-President (Operations), JPSI: “With JPSI sponsoring Karun Chandhok for the remainder of the 2010 F1 Season, we hope to significantly boost the level of interest in this sport in India. For businesses, top-flight motorsport coming to the country in 2011 will open up a whole new range of opportunities for brand-building, high-end corporate entertainment, sponsorship deals and, ultimately, revenue generation. We’re glad to be playing a major role in getting this started.”

Karun Chandhok: “It’s a great privilege for us to have the Jaypee Group as a partner. They have taken the bold step to bring the Formula 1 World Championship to India next year and it’s something I am very excited about. To be the Indian driver on the grid for the first Indian Grand Prix next year will be very special for me and I look forward to working with the Gaur family and their team at Jaypee to make sure the Indian Grand Prix is a huge success for all of us.”

Lotus Racing’s Silverstone Friday Practice debut was a day of mixed fortunes, with Heikki Kovalainen completing 41 laps and finishing under a second behind Alguersuari’s Toro Rosso, but Fairuz Fauzy and Jarno Trulli both suffering technical issues that curtailed their running.Heikki Kovalainen (Chassis T127-01) FP1: 16 laps, best time 1.36.747, 19th / FP2: 25 laps, 1.35.465, 19th “It felt fine out there today. I had just one problem at the end with the power steering, but that was the only issue with my car. I’m not sure this circuit suits our car as well as it does with some of the top cars, but compared to the other new teams I think we’re in good shape.

“The new layout is nothing like the old circuit – now it feels like it’s pretty straightforward. It’s quite bumpy, and the corners are pretty simple, not like the old circuit where you got on the throttle and could find a really good line through the corners. I have no problem with the circuit, I just preferred the old one. ”

Fairuz Fauzy (Chassis T127-04) FP1: 11 laps, best time 1.39.510, 23rd “First it was just great to be out on track at Silverstone – it was such an honour, and something that will stay with me for ever. We had a bit of a problem with the engine at the start of the session, which was a little unexpected, but the team did an amazing job to change the engine during the session in less than an hour. This meant I had a good 40 minutes with the car, and in that time I could see we’ve made some big steps forward.”

Jarno Trulli (Chassis T127-04) FP2: 3 laps, 1.42.901, 24th “I can’t say much about today really – we had a problem with the gearbox that the guys spent most of the session trying to fix, but then it was clear it couldn’t be done in time for today so we’ll just focus on tomorrow, and hope the luck changes.”

Mike Gascoyne, Chief Technical Officer: “It’s great to be back at Silverstone, but it was a difficult first day at the office for us. We had Fairuz driving for the first session and unfortunately, just before the session started, we had an airbox fire which meant we had to change the engine. This obviously limited his running but when we were able to get him out for the second half of the session, he once again did a great job, taking the car through all the engine tests, so thanks to him.

“With Jarno, we’d had to change the gearbox between the sessions, but unfortunately a bearing failure that we were unable to fix brought his session to an early end, so apologies to him for that. We’ll work hard to put it right tomorrow.

“Heikki ran through his whole programme without any real problems, but he had to stop at the end of the session with a hydraulics problem. We could see from his times that, performance-wise, we’re looking good – we’ve just got to make sure we run reliably through the next couple of days.”

Team Principal Dr Colin Kolles comments, “We reached our next goal with our  two cars making it to the finish in Malaysia after a tough race on a demanding track on our third ever race week-end. Now, not only HRT F1 Team, Hispania Racing wants to hit a new target and finish again with both cars but we are also working to get reliability with the cars and get more experience including experience in different conditions including possible wet weather. We will see good progress in consistent driving.”

Bruno Senna comments, “I’m looking forward to the China Grand Prix and I am certain that I will enjoy China. But firstly, I need some laps there in free practice as I have never driven in China yet. The circuit looks smooth with a difficult first corner, very similar to Malaysia’s first corner. So let’s see  how I can build on our past results.”

Karun Chandhok comments, “I am looking for another great achievement for our team for our fourth Grand Prix start. I have never been to Shanghai before but raced in Zhuhai. After Melbourne, I am not too worried learning a circuit even if it will take a few laps to understand fully our car. I want to build on my good race with full fuel load in Malaysia. Hopefully we can get some more performance and gather good data for the start of the European season in Barcelona.”

Lotus Racing heads into the weekend’s race feeling confident about maintaining their positive start to the season at the Malaysian Grand Prix. Lotus Racing also looks forward to welcoming Malaysian driver Fairuz Fauzy to his first practice on Friday morning, where he will be taking the Lotus Cosworth T127–01 around the Sepang Circuit.

Fairuz commented “First of all I’m very pleased to be back home, and I’m very happy to have been given the opportunity to drive on Friday – it’ll be a good chance to test the track and the driving conditions, and I feel very happy to be back in F1™ driving for Lotus Racing in my home country of Malaysia after my last run in Barcelona. The car is much improved from the past two races and I hope we can continue the good development.”

Chief Technical Officer Mike Gascoyne said: “We left Australia with mixed feelings – delighted that Heikki finished and showed, again, that our initial focus on building a reliable car is paying off, but sorry for Jarno that he didn’t have the chance to start the race because of a failure that was out of our control. We go into this weekend determined to give both drivers the chance to maintain our good start to the season – we’ve finished three out of four so far and I want to make it five out of six at Sepang.

“On a personal level it’s great to be back in Malaysia and give the fans the chance to show what we’ve been working on since September last year. I spent a lot of time here with Tony, Din and Nasa when we were putting the entry together, and when we launched the team, and it’s just great to be back here with two races done, and to show that the dream we had, and the hard work we’re all putting in, is starting to pay off.

“The race this weekend will be another tough one for us – the temperature and the weather will obviously play a big part in our strategy for the weekend, but I’m confident we’ll be able to build on the solid start we’ve had so far, and put on a good show for our Malaysian fans.”

Turning attention to the race itself, Heikki and Jarno both echoed Mike’s comments, with Heikki saying “I’ve always looked forward to the Sepang race. It’s a technical circuit, one that puts heavy demands on your fitness level and pays you back if you find a good rhythm. I trained well over the winter and am feeling really good, physically and mentally, so I’m looking forward to the challenge, and after Bahrain and Melbourne my confidence levels in the car continue to grow, so basically I’m looking forward to getting on with it. I’ve also had the chance to play a bit of golf on Wednesday, so for me it looks like this will be a great week!”

Jarno added: “I was obviously disappointed not to start in Melbourne, but that makes me even more determined to do well in Malaysia. I know the team and our suppliers have been putting in the hours to fix the problem we had, so I just want to get back on track and push. Sepang’s a hard race for sure – the heat and the humidity can make it pretty uncomfortable, but it’s the same for everyone and maybe my experience helps me cope with it better than some. I like the track itself – finding a decent setup is a challenge as it’s pretty hard on brakes and tyres, and it’ll be interesting to see how the car behaves with full tanks around here, but I’ll do my best and we’ll see what happens.”

Rounding off the Lotus Racing team’s thoughts on its Malaysian homecoming is Team Principal Tony Fernandes, who said: “It’s difficult to put into words just how happy I am to see Lotus Racing in Malaysia, and to see the reaction of the fans to our arrival here. It proves to me that I’m right about chasing your dreams. Just over six months ago I said we’d be here, and quite a few very experienced, very clever people said it couldn’t be done – you couldn’t build an F1™ team from scratch, literally from just an entry, to not just racing, but racing professionally, like we’ve been here for many years, in just six months, but we’ve done it and we’re here. I’m so proud – not just of everyone in the team for the hard work they’ve put in since September and continue to do so every day, but also of every single one of our fans around the world, and particularly here in Malaysia, my home and one of the homes of Lotus Racing. We are British and Malaysian, united, and I want Lotus Racing to be accessible to anyone, anywhere, globally. We’re here to show you that if you want to achieve amazing things you can. We’re living the dream right now and I’m just really pleased that everyone in Malaysia can join us in doing so.”