Despite showing more potential in the wet conditions of the second race in Monaco this weekend, Lola Yamaha ABT was unable to secure further points.
In an improved qualifying from yesterday’s E-Prix, Zane Maloney started in P9 while Lucas di Grassi lined up on the grid in P11.
Both drivers fought hard in the slippery conditions, however while under Attack Mode and trying to overtake Jake Dennis (Andretti), Lucas made a mistake and hit the barrier, ending his race early.
Zane continued to maximise the car’s performance in the difficult conditions, however, was unable to score points on this occasion. A five-second penalty unfortunately dropped him further down the standings, ultimately finishing in P14.
“Overall it was a difficult weekend, we didn’t have the pace in the dry and although we made improvements, we were still lacking in pace. Today with the rain we were able to qualify better and were just a few hundredths from the duels. In general, in the race we struggled and I took too much risk, tried too hard and ended up making a mistake and crashing the car. We will continue working and developing as we head to Tokyo and try to score more points there. We will never give up and will keep on fighting.”
“It was a great qualifying for the team in the wet and I think we really maximised the car. I was a little bit disappointed to not make the duels as I was only a few hundredths away and there was definitely more than that in my lap, so overall I’m happy with the result. During the race, we were relatively very strong in the wet, had great communication and maximised our strategy but when the track dried out we struggled for pace. As a new team the development rate is quite high and the team is working very hard to move us up the field.”
“We were more competitive in qualifying today with Zane finishing in the top 10 and Lucas just behind in P11 but we knew it would be a challenge with the race starting wet and potentially drying out. Unfortunately, Lucas made a mistake which ended his race early as he was performing well. Zane fought well throughout the race but wasn’t able to score his first points for the team. We will keep pushing ahead of Tokyo and look forward to taking to the track there in a home race for our partners Yamaha.”
“It’s been a difficult weekend and particularly in dry conditions, we were off the pace. We need to analyse why this happened as we were more competitive in previous races. However, the team did a great job in the wet conditions and now we look forward to Tokyo which is a home race for us with Yamaha and we’ll be ready to fight for points again there.”The success comes after Lola confirmed its technical partnership with Yamaha Motor will continue for GEN4.
