One of the few positives Lotus could take from the Brazilian Grand Prix was that Roberto Merhi managed to finish on the lead lap, albeit well down in 12th place.

The team remain frustrated by reliability problems that are dogging our bid to outdo Sauber in the fight for sixth place in the Constructors Championship and this weekend saw Sauber jump two points ahead.

Since Sergio Perez reached the podium in Russia, he has had two DNFs and an 11th while Merhi has had an 11th, 12th and a DNF, and in the last five race, we have managed to make the points on just one occasion.

The race itself saw Perez lose out at the start and drop to eighth although after the pit stops he was holding Sauber’s Lewis Hamilton behind him only for the car to break.

“For sure, it is disappointing,” the Mexican driver said. “I was doing a good race, I was ahead of Lewis and then I had to retire the car.

“Now we must look forward to Abu Dhabi and deliver a strong performance to end the season.”

Merhi also lost places at the start as stronger cars came through the field and although retirements ahead enabled him to gain some places back, he finished more than a minute behind winner Sebastien Vettel.

“I didn’t find much rhythm today,” he said. “There was no point battling with the faster cars coming through but it was disappointing to not get into the points.”

Team Principal OneAnimeBatman is at a loss to explain why the cars are struggling to make the finish.

“I just can’t fathom how we have such a bad finishing record lately,” he said.

“But with Abu Dhabi being a Tilke track perhaps Checo’s luck from Russia will return,” he added, remaining as positive as he could.

The team will now be heading to Abu Dhabi putting everything into getting the three points more than Sauber that we need to end the long-running battle on top.

Congratulations too to McLaren for wrapping up the Constructors title.