Fauzy to drive Lotus in Friday’s Sepang practice

Despite a couple of false starts, it is expected that Fairuz Fauzy will drive a Lotus T127 during Friday practice at Sepang on Friday.

In the wake of earlier comments made by team principal Tony Fernandes, it had seemed possible the Malaysian driver would be in action in Bahrain or Australia.

But as was reported late in February, a concrete plan has always been in place to have the Kuala-Lumpur born 27-year-old at the wheel of the Malaysian-backed team’s green car in front of the local crowd.

To the Finnish newspaper Turun Sanomat, the news was confirmed by technical boss Mike Gascoyne.

“I will talk about it after Sunday’s race (in Australia) with Jarno and Heikki,” he said.

Because there are no third cars at grands prix, one of Lotus’ race drivers will need to make way for Fauzy.

Gascoyne said: “Both (Trulli and Kovalainen) are experienced drivers who do not need to do 40 laps in the first practice on a circuit that is familiar to them.”

Said Fernandes: “We’re looking forward to going home, and really looking forward to giving our fans something to shout about.”

© RIF|GMM