Lotus F1 continue their impressive start to the year

Heikki Kovalainen flys the Lotus flag at the Australian Grand Prix

Norfolk-based Formula One team Lotus Racing continued their promising start to the season in Australia on Sunday.

Heikki Kovalainen's 13th place finish meant that as in Bahrain a fortnight ago, Lotus finished in front of the three other new teams on the grid.

Kovalainen said: "Our target was to finish the race and from the start we were quite comfortably ahead of the new teams."

Team-mate Jarno Trulli failed to make the start with a hydraulics failure.

Chief technical officer said the hydraulic power pack failed on the Italian's car.

"It was not something we've seen before and we couldn't get it changed in time," said Gascoyne.

"Balancing that was another strong race from Heikki. He made a good start, lost a few places after the accident on the opening lap, but did a great job to get the car home, keeping us tenth in the championship."

Team principal Tony Fernandes said Trulli was unlucky.

"I guess we've got to have had some bad luck at some point and I'm disappointed for Jarno, but Heikki did us proud - three places away from a point, and he was keeping pace with most of the other cars throughout the race.

"Maybe it would have been nice if three other cars had gone out so we could get a point, but, joking aside, it is good that at this stage of the season we're already thinking about points. We're in a nice position for Malaysia."