Kovalainen drives first Lotus
02 February 2010
Heikki Kovalainen drove a Lotus for the first time on Monday. The car in question was not his Formula 1 machine, however, but one of the British company's recognised sports cars for the road - Heikki is now the proud owned of an Evora in white, complete with blue stripe.
With the personnel of the Lotus Cars factory in Norfolk - located just several miles from the base of the 1Malaysia F1 team - delighted to meet the Finnish driver, Kovalainen was also charmed by the day's events.
"The Evora was everything I expected," he said after driving the car on the company's private test track. "Lotus is famous for fantastic sports cars and the Evora did not disappoint. The power-to-weight ratio gives the car a real race car feel and allowed me to really push it round the track. I enjoyed every lap and had fun sliding it sideways!
"The day has been great; I was really excited to see so many happy, motivated people and the support of the Lotus workforce is very much appreciated - I really got a sense of the passion the people have for the Lotus brand. It was an honour to meet Clive Chapman and learn more abut his legendary father (Colin, founder of the company in 1952) and to see Lotus' classic F1 cars. I'm really keen to drive one of the JPS cars and maybe will be at Lotus again sometime soon to drive the 72!"