Lotus driver Romain Grosjean has admitted that his team are facing problems but stressed that the E22 could still be ‘a monster of a car’.

Grosjean suffered mapping issues with his car which affected his braking ability and he was consequently eliminated in the first knockout session after setting only the 21st fastest time.

“We had a lot of problems today and every time we fixed one another one comes along! The guys are working very hard and it’s a tough situation for everyone,” he said.

“We just have to learn everything we can every time we are out in the car on the track. Yes it’s frustrating, but I’m the one who has the easiest life as I’m not working all night on the car.

“The whole team is here to win, so when it doesn’t go to plan it’s not great. It could still be made into a monster of a car if we all pull together as a team. We’ve been through some tough times in the past so we’ll work our way out of it.”

Team-mate Pastor Maldonado also endured a torrid session as the Venezuelan driver only made it out on track as the rain fell due to a power unit issue and twice had runs through the gravel. He failed to set a time and was eliminated in Q1.

“It’s been quite difficult today,” he said. “We’re working very hard and we need to be optimistic. On the plus side, we’re not the only ones with problems. We’ll keep on working hard and try to work harder than the others. It was a power unit related issue which meant we were so late to the track.

“By that time it started to rain, and then, that’s it! We just need to stay focussed and keep on working and that’s exactly what we’re doing. For the race we’ll just do the best we can. Our pace should be quite good; we just need to put the laps together.”