Grosjean: It feels like a race win

The Lotus driver was one of the stars of qualifying, ending the competitive Q3 session in P4.

Team deputy Federico Gastaldi has said Pic, who brought sponsorship to the team previous year, is claiming he was not given all of his promised driving days.

Lotus encountered major issues early last season with Renault’s power unit following the introduction of the 1.6-litre V6 turbo-charged systems.

Sister team Toro Rosso has been forced change Max Verstappen’s engine which will see the Dutch teenager hit with a 10 place grid penalty.

Romain Grosjean admitted surprise at qualifying fourth for the Belgian Grand Prix, though he will line up in ninth after being hit with a grid penalty for a gearbox change.

Although progress has been made over the past few days by lawyers representing both parties, a resolution is not due until Monday.

Speaking to AUTOSPORT, Lotus co-owner Gerard Lopez said he is confident the issue will be resolved ahead of the race.

“I can not explain the gain of speed [this weekend] but, [when] “safety car” came up on the steering wheel, we pitted as planned”, he noted, “I lost a position to Seb as Ferrari was running a one-stop strategy, which was quite aggressive and we didn’t think we were able to do it, [but] I was really closing the gap and it was unfortunate that he had that puncture”. “Force India look strong so we had to beat them”.

“Being here today is kind of special I think”.

Yet another cloud has formed above the troubled Lotus team’s garage.

A statement added: “The reason is this matter was neither sporting nor technical in nature, and involved no work being performed by the team”.

“This is still a positive; that we qualified P4 and it didn’t happen to me since USA 2013”, Grosjean said.

“We are hopeful of doing that, of trying to find a balanced agreement”.