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.
Lotus made the switch ahead of FP3 on Saturday morning, coming before the mandatory six events a gearbox must last before it can be changed without a penalty. It proved to be especially costly for Grosjean as he turned in his best qualifying performance since qualifying third for the 2013 United States Grand Prix.
Despite the penalty, Grosjean was in good spirits about his performance.
"This is still a positive; that we qualified P4 and it didn't happen to me since USA 2013," Grosjean said. "So a long time now."
The Frenchman says Lotus exceeded its own low expectations for qualifying by even making it into the top-ten shootout.
"Initially we thought that qualifying P11 would be good saving a lot of set of tyres, then with the grid five-place penalty start P16. In Q2 it went pretty well and then in Q3 we just give it everything and it work well. I think we are pretty much surprised to be P4, but it shows that we've been working in good direction and it was a nice up."