Adrian Sutil offered to drive for Lotus this year with a discounted retainer, it emerged on Monday.<\/p>\n
In Munich, the ousted Force India driver’s two-day assault trial, surrounding injuries sustained by Lotus team executive Eric Lux last April, began.<\/p>\n
T-Online reports that the German driver and his management proposed “various solutions” for an out-of-court settlement, including payments to Lux’s African charity.<\/p>\n
Another proposal was a race seat at Lotus featuring a “reduced salary”, according to the report.<\/p>\n
Lux recently dismissed as “a joke” earlier speculation Sutil – charged with causing a nine centimetre cut on Lux’s neck with a broken champagne glass – might drive for Lotus in 2012.<\/p>\n
The hearing concludes on Tuesday but SID news agency reports the possibility of an eleventh-hour settlement.<\/p>\n
The report said Sutil and Lux’s lawyers had private talks at the conclusion of Monday’s proceedings.<\/p>\n
A last-minute settlement would have to be approved by the prosecutor, Nicole Selzam, according to Auto Motor und Sport.<\/p>\n
The report revealed previously unheard details of the incident, including Sutil telling Lux in the Shanghai nightclub: “Don’t you know I’m a formula one driver?”<\/p>\n
Lux said he replied: “Don’t you know I’m a formula one team owner?”<\/p>\n
Video surveillance footage of the incident showed Sutil seated on a couch next to Lewis Hamilton, who declined to appear as a witness, before Lux approached.<\/p>\n
Sutil responded with a gesture – a “nudge” according to the driver – towards Lux’s neck.\u00a0 A doctor testified that the injuries necessitated a movement with “medium power”.<\/p>\n
2008 world champion Hamilton said in a written statement to the court that he could not remember the details of the scuffle.<\/p>\n
Former Virgin driver and new Lotus reserve driver Jerome d’Ambrosio, however, did appear, testifying that he heard a glass break.<\/p>\n
According to Sutil, it also emerged that Lux demanded a “double digit million sum” in compensation and a voluntary multiple-race grand prix ban in the midst of last season.<\/p>\n
Sutil’s lawyer put it to Lux that it would have been an opportunity for one of his team’s Genii-managed drivers to drive for Force India.<\/p>\n
“I never thought about that for a second,” Lux hit back.<\/p>\n
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