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[Coronis]

Not sure if this has been done before, but I'd like to hear other people's opinions on this, who is the better Lotus driver, and why?

[Hammer278]

Good to see this thread. It's an interesting battle personally, as I never rated Kovaleinen highly though I did Trulli. However, Trulli is being spanked by Kova, this year and even more so the last.

I believe Trulli was a better driver at his peak, and he's facing the twilight phase of his career now. Kova to beat him this year as well though I'd love to see Trulli getting the first point(s) for Lotus before he hangs up his helmet.

[texasmr2]

Tough choice so I did not vote as I think they are pretty equal skill wise.

[What's Burning?]

Depends on which one can bring Lotus their first point. They are pretty equal, but to me it looks like Kovalainen has better qualifying attempts and Trulli better race pace but this one is close.

[Denthúl]

I think Heikki is the better of the two, both in qualifying and in the race. He seems to have more consistency and more motivation at the moment. Plus, he rarely whines, whereas Jarno is at it every race.

One thing that does stand out to me is the qualifying session at Monaco last year. First time Jarno had ever been out-qualified by a team-mate at that circuit and he's had a couple of team-mates who, in my opinion and certainly the opinion of many others, have been better than him.

[Jabberwocky]

I think the trouble with Kovi is that his team mates have always been the best of the generation (Lewis and Fernando). now that we see him against a normal F1 driver you can see he is better than average but not the best.

[scotty]

At the moment, Kovalainen easily. He's a very good driver, but just had a bad time in the latter period of his McLaren career (this isn't the thread to speculate why though). He started off very well at McLaren, and finished off '07 with some excellent performances (Fuji in the wet!).

That said, i think Trulli at his peak was better than Kovalainen is now. In 2004 if i remember correctly he actually outscored Alonso during the races they were together at Renault for, something that no other driver has done in F1. He also took that superb win at Monaco, and if you can win there you're definitely not a bad driver. Then add on top some of his brilliant performances at Toyota... 3rd from the pit lane at Melbourne '09 is one good example, not to mention all those astonishing qualifying laps he could pull out.

[Jabberwocky]

Plus Trulli has the "Trulli train" named after him. which proves he was putting the cars in parts of the grid that it should not of been in. I bet he does not like the idea of DRS as that would stop his advantage of being a qualifying master.

[LewEngBridewell]

I've always liked Jarno Trulli a lot, but I'm gonna say Heikki Kovalainen here. Trulli is famously a great qualifier, and he's had flashes of brilliance (like winning the 2004 Monaco GP and outperforming Alonso at Renault), but at the moment Kovalainen is impressing me more at Lotus. He also actually seems to have great quali pace.

Being partnered with Hamilton and Alonso at the start of his career has not been easy, but he's maturing well.

[Denthúl]

Where does everyone get the idea that Kovalainen was paired with Alonso? His Renault team-mate was Fisichella...

[LewEngBridewell]

Where does everyone get the idea that Kovalainen was paired with Alonso? His Renault team-mate was Fisichella...

Totally mixed the pair of them up there. It's because I was talking a lot about Trulli being more than a match for Alonso back in '04.