Lotus has been forced to end its running on the opening day of the second F1 pre-season test at Catalunya after an issue with the E30 chassis being used this week.

The chassis was being used for the first time during the test, with Romain Grosjean managing just a handful of laps before returning to the pits with concerns over how the car was performing.

As a result, the car is being returned to the team's base at Enstone, with the chassis that was used in Jerez last week now being taken to Catalunya instead.

“This morning was our first shakedown of our second chassis,” trackside operations director Alan Permane said. “Once the car was on track it was soon evident that everything wasn't quite as it should be. As a precaution we are returning the chassis to Enstone for further investigation. Chassis E20-01, which we used in Jerez, is being sent over and we expect to be on track with that chassis tomorrow.”

With Grosjean insisting it was 'better that we have an issue like this now rather than in Melbourne', team boss Eric Boullier insisted the problem was nothing more than a 'minor setback'.

“This is a minor setback to our overall test programme,” he said. “Fortunately we accumulated good mileage in Jerez. If this is the only issue we have during testing then we will still be well prepared for the start of the season. We'll be back on track tomorrow with chassis E20-01 and assessing chassis E20-02 back at Enstone.”

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