Archive for mai 2012

Home Archive for mai 2012

Romain Grosjean qualified in P5 whilst Kimi Räikkönen set the eighth fastest time in qualifying for tomorrow’s Monaco Grand Prix. Romain gains a position on the grid due to a five position penalty for fastest man today, Michael Schumacher. Qualifying was exceptionally close, with all nine cars setting a time within a second of pole in Q3.

Kimi Räikkönen, E20-03. Q: P8, 1:15.199 FP3: P12, 1:16.301 “For sure we’re not very happy after that session. Since the first practice we’ve been a little bit behind where we should have been and we’ve been trying to catch-up. The car is fine, the biggest problem today was trying to get the tyres working as it seemed to be a bit tricky to get them up to temperature. I could have been a bit faster on my best lap, but I went a little bit too deep in the swimming pool section. It’s a bit disappointing but you can’t get it right every time. At a normal race track you would be able to gain positions through overtaking, but in Monaco this is difficult. That said, anything can happen here so hopefully we can achieve something good tomorrow.”

Romain Grosjean, E20-04. Q: P5, 1:14.639 FP3: P5 1:15.445 (will start from P4)

“We are not as high on the grid as we wanted to be, but things were very tight today. I did a very good lap in the first part of Q3 but then I couldn’t improve on my second set of tyres. This was a shame because our strategy was perfect for the last part of qualifying. The traffic wasn’t too bad but I missed out in sector two. I think pole position was within reach. P4 is not exactly where we wanted to be but the race will be long. It’s Monaco, it will be difficult; nonetheless we know that the car is quite good on high fuel and with the tyres, so let’s see what we can do and put the best strategy into place.”

Alan Permane, Director of Trackside Operations:
“We’ve got it all to do...”

How do you assess today’s qualifying performance?
“Disappointing. After the pace we saw in the car on Thursday and this morning we expected better. Monaco is a very difficult place to get everything exactly right on a lap and the penalties for making a mistake were seen elsewhere in qualifying, but nevertheless we thought we were a realistic prospect for a front row here so to miss out is a bitter pill to swallow.”

What are the strategy considerations for the race?
“Overtaking is notoriously difficult here due to the narrow and twisty confines of the track. No matter what the tyre performance or the presence of DRS, KERS or any other factor, a slower car can hold up a faster car for a long time here. Our best opportunity for a strong race result is for Thursday afternoon’s rain to return or for there to be an eventful race to mix up the order.We will of course spend a long time looking at what we can do strategically as the E20 is generally easy on it’s tyres. Also Monaco can often throw up many surprises.so the podium is by no means out of reach” Did missing FP1 affect Kimi’s performance?

“We certainly can’t say it helped him. Kimi struggled to get sufficient heat in his tyres today, even with the super soft compound, so he didn’t feel he had sufficient grip to push harder. He needed one more set of super softs than Romain to get into Q3, so consequently had one fewer set than Romain in that session.”

Romain has looked very strong so far this weekend; was there more possible in qualifying? “Romain lost out in the second sector on his fastest lap and we will be looking to understand what went wrong. When you look at his times all through the weekend, and consider the track evolution, his qualifying lap was short of what we thought possible. But still, it’s not a bad effort for a first F1 qualifying here.”

On the plus side?
“We do have both cars in the top ten which is good for our Constructors’ Championship points potential. McLaren in second in the standings ahead of us have one car outside of the top ten so we have scope to do well against them, but equally it’s a very close field.”

Puttin’ on the Ritz

This will be my tenth Monaco Grand Prix. It’s a great weekend ahead of us, while we got this thrilling challenge to go fast in the special event at Monte Carlo.

The one day longer weekend brings always a little bit extra for all the exciting challenges of motor racing.

I’ve got three podiums in Monaco. To win it back in 2005 is a memory, I won’t never forget. It gives you such an unbeatable feeling, while you get right every lap. Obviously, you want to feel it again and again, but it’s the trickiest race of them all to have a perfect day.

You never know beforehand how it goes in racing, and especially for Monaco you can’t even guess how it might go. Obviously, we have done some mistakes in the first few races so far, but you can’t afford even a smaller one, if you want to get things done in Monaco.

I have a positive feeling with the car. It has been good and competitive everywhere, but we have to understand more some details with temparature changes and the tyres, too.

The qualifying is always hundred times more important in Monaco compared to other places. You cannot exaggerate the importance of this qualifying. Obviously for us, the qualifying is something we really have to get right. Lately we have had some hard lessons of it.

To get to the front row does not help, if you are second and you have to start from the dirtier side of the circuit, it’s not easy to keep your place – or to improve it. I’ve been there before and it seems that every time I loose one position simply because you always suffer from the wheelspin.

Coming to Monaco we’ve got now two podiums in a row this season and we have had good points with both cars. So there is a good basis to build on further.

A podium should be a possible target for Monaco, as well. But to achieve it, we have to have a solid and clean weekend all way long since Thursday morning.

Most of all it’s a question of the best drive of the year – the 100% concentration with the 100% working car all the 78 laps of the Grand Prix. That’s the only way to be real happy after the race in Monaco.

Everybody in the team has pushed really hard and it has been good and very motivating time since we started the season. Now it’s time to enjoy the Monaco weekend!

You can’t always get what you want!

It’s always good to finish the Grand Prix weekend in the podium. Up there you see how much people have enjoyed the race, you see your team having fun – and you sum up for yourself, how good was your own race.

As a team, for the first time, we got more points than anybody else. Obviously, it cannot be much better than that! But as a team, we also felt, that there could have been even more points to get from this race, as well.

Everybody knew before coming to Barcelona, it was going to be very tight again between so many teams, and it would end up being down to tyre strategy to gain a bit of advantage, if possible. Our car has been good and strong everywhere, but the hotter is the track temperature, the better it is for E20.

For the starters, obviously, it was ideal weather for us. The sun made it feel like summer – and the track temperature was exactly, what ’our doctor ordered’ it to be!

We did our usual Friday programme, the long runs were giving promising data, and the tyre was working as we expected it to work. No problems, with that at all.

The qualifying was ok. We had too much some set-up issues before starting the Q1, but in the final run for the day, the car was at it’s best. Actually so good, that it surprised me in one corner. We lost some time and were out of the first row. But, all in all, it was a solid qualifying result to go for it in the race.

Obviously, the weather was not doing us any favors, while the real good sunshine from previous days was fading for the race start, and the so important track temperature came down accordingly, too. We went along with our tactics. The start was ok, but I could not improve more than one place.

With a hotter temperature, maybe, the second stint would have been our stint, but in this time, it was the stint, where we lost our way to higher positions. The soft solution was not the optimal solution this time. After second stint the gap to the leaders was just a bit too much to catch up in the end.

Well, we tried our best. With the hard tyre working better, we got close again - and a few laps more to go, we could have won. But it’s waste of energy to think, what could have happened. We got P3, 15 points and gained 3 places in the championship. As a racing driver I cannot be 100% happy, if I not winning after being so close, knowing the potential of the car, and being the fastest of top 3 drivers at the end of race. But You cannot always get what You want!

Kimi Räikkönen and Romain Grosjean ensured that Lotus F1 Team were the strongest points scoring team in a fast-paced Spanish Grand Prix, finishing in third and fourth position to move the team within 14 points of second place in the Constructors’ Championship.

- Kimi pitted for a set of used softs on lap 11, then fresh sets of hards on laps 27 and 48.

Kimi Räikkönen, P2, E20-03

“I had a very good start and had a chance to overtake on the outside, but we did not have enough speed and I hit the limiter in fifth gear. I am a bit disappointed because if everything had gone right in the first part of the race, we could have won. There was no issue with the speed of the car, but it is so close between all the teams that if you have a small problem or a small issue it can cost so much. Our car can do it, but everything has to fall into the right place to be able to get on to the top step. My first stint was okay, but I didn’t have the speed to stay with the cars in front. We changed the tyres and it seemed to be pretty good, but we were too far away. At the end we needed a few more laps and we could have fought for the win. We’re not far away from it and so far we’ve made good steps forwards; the car feels strong everywhere.”

Eric Boullier, Team Principal

"It’s a very strong result and it’s a great reward for the team today. I think we can expect a stronger season than we had last year and we need to carry on scoring points as we have in the last two races. I’m sure a win could arrive at some point this season. After qualifying you build expectations, and we could have expected after the strong race pace we had in Bahrain that we could have done the same here, but it was not the case. A race incident at the start didn’t help Romain, but the pace of both drivers at the end of the race illustrated our potential. Finally, we must say congratulations to the Williams team for their win, and we hope no-one was seriously hurt in the post-race incident in their pits.”

Alan Permane, Director of Trackside Operations
“Third and fourth is a really good result for the team and it meant a big points haul here – more than any other team this weekend – which helps us to close up hugely on second place in the standings. Of course, it would have been nice to have done better, but the key to a strong championship campaign is consistency and if we can finish third and fourth in every race this season we’ll be very happy. We didn’t have the pace to win today, that much was clear after the first stints. We tried to push our stints out and be quick at the end. We were, and it nearly paid off.”

Ricardo Penteado, Renault Sport F1 Team Support Leader
“It was a great race with another podium and fourth position to move us a lot closer to second in the championship. We introduced new engines after Friday practice and it went well. We managed the fuel consumption effectively on both cars in the race, but in Romain’s we had some engine air consumption in the middle stint. Congratulations to Pastor and our Renault colleagues working at Williams today – a well deserved win.”

Kimi Räikkönen set the fifth fastest time under blue skies and light clouds in qualifying for tomorrow’s Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Catalunya

Kimi Räikkönen, E20-03. Q: P5, 1:22.487. FP3: P9, 1:23.936

“I think we had a chance to be in the top three but we’ve been fighting with the set-up quite a bit today. We changed the car for qualifying and actually it was the correct call in the end; it was just a few small mistakes which cost me some time on my Q3 lap. We’ll see how it goes tomorrow in the race; the car has usually been better on Sunday than it has been on Saturday, so if that’s the case tomorrow we’ll be pretty happy. A lot of small details will decide the race and the tyres are one aspect of course. Our long runs were promising yesterday, so we’re not looking too bad. Hopefully we get a reasonable start and we can be up at the right end and go for it. I think we’ve got a good car and that’s the main thing.”

Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director:
“Today went relatively smoothly for us…”

How do you assess today’s qualifying performance?
“Today went relatively smoothly for us. In Q3 I think we could have had a little bit more from both drivers’ laps. For Romain in particular – after missing this morning’s practice – it was an exceptional effort. Having the hard and soft tyres as opposed to two compounds which sit alongside each other (the medium and soft used in Bahrain for example) meant we had to approach qualifying differently as we all needed the softer tyre to progress through Q1, limiting the number of soft tyres available for the next two sessions. We saw different approaches to this; we’ll have to see in the race whose was correct.”

How are we looking for the race?
“Our long run pace yesterday looked good so we can be reasonably confident heading into the race. Our target for today was to get both cars into the top six; we’ve got both in the top five so let’s try and exceed expectations once again tomorrow.”

What are we thinking for tyre strategy heading into tomorrow?
“We used three sets of soft tyres to go through qualifying, but we have two new sets of the hard compound Pirelli tyres. We are very flexible on tyre strategy for tomorrow and we’ll be spending a lot of time now looking at all the possible permutations. There’s certainly no clear solution shouting out at us at this stage, so we have a lot of number crunching to do. We’ll be starting both cars on scrubbed soft tyres, after that it is still to be decided.”

Obviously, this is the most interesting time of the season. It’s a pleasure for the drivers and the teams, as we’ve been back at home for some time, and now the next couple of races will be not that far away to go to.

This is great. It’s easy to get to the circuit, have fun during the Grand Prix weekend, and come back home in such a short time.

For me the Spanish Grand Prix is a kind of checking-point of the season. All the teams know the Catalunya Circuit very well. This is the only race track we been testing with the new cars and now with the upgrades on board we can start evalutiating things to the data gathered during the preseason testing.

All the eyes are now on Barcelona. It will be tighter than ever before, while so many teams and drivers have been so close all the year long so far. I guess, for the spectators it must be as exciting as it is for us.

Hopefully this time our team will have a weekend with all the things getting sorted out quickly. Up till now we have not done any favours to ourselves in that side. We’ve been close, but close is not enough in this sport to gain poles and victories.

The Enstone boys have been working very hard with the car. It’s been one of the best cars I have had in the beginning of all the seasons in which I raced. The very encouraging thing is to keep hearing whispers the best is still to come from the car.

But you never know beforehand. There is no reason to promise anything right now. Like I said, it’s so bloody tight and close. With a smallest mistake you’ll be out of the Top 10. It’s like long jump. You have be able to leap hitting the board exactly right by millimeter to get everything out of all your competitiveness.

Twice I have had a perfect weekend in Barcelona. I’ve won both times from the pole. Obviously, I rank them to the best races I have ever had. The circuit is very challenging. It’s changing so quickly from the morning to the afternoon and the vary in the temperature is such an important factor to the set-up compromises being right.

My own approach is always to keep pushing 100 percent. It’s the same like the whole team. Our aim is to get the maximum result possible for every Grand Prix. Let’s wait and see how it goes in Barcelona.

Obviously, I've got more points than ever before, but, for sure, it was not the best race of my life. We had a chance to get to the top position at the Bahrain Grand Prix. Well, we tried our best, but it was not enough. We finished second and I've got my first podium after a couple of years.

The weather was good. Finally it was consistently warm. Our car likes that and it felt really good after we had the proper set-up work done on Friday better than in the previous race weekends.

The key factor was the tyre degeration. It's the same for everybody, but everybody can approach it in their own way. We decided to gamble the qualifying and went accordlingly through it. To save new tyres for the race, we did only one lap in Q2. We knew it will be tight, and we lost it. But still I had a encouraged feeling for Sunday.

After the race in China and after the qualifying in Bahrain, people probably started thinking that we are idiots and cannot do anything right. But we showed in the race why we did what we did. It was close already in China and this time our strategy paid back very nicely for us.

We were at our fastest speed while it counted. I managed to overtake Romain and after that I've was hunting down Sebastian. It was close getting past him, too, but I would have needed more than one chance to make it. Now I chose the wrong side for braking, Sebastian survived and after that, I pretty much knew, that was it.

Of course, I wanted to win. I would have been much happier myself after the race. But, most of all, it was a great result for the team. The team gained many places in the contsructors' championship, while finally we got both our cars in the points and, most of all, in the podium as well.

Only McLaren has had two cars in top 3 in the season like us. That shows how tight and how close it is with so many top teams. You have to get everything exactly right to be at the top. Small mistakes or a measured risk like we had and you are out from Q3 and most likely out of podium, too.

Now the team is back up where we belong. The Bahrain result was good, but it's not good enough for us. We will push even harder to get good results on regular basis. I wouldn't count on winning, but you never know how it goes in motor racing.

Next step is testing in Mugello. For Barcelona we have again some new parts and also some good data from the winter testing. Let's wait and see how it goes there in two weeks time.

Kimi Räikkönen and Romain Grosjean danced their way through the Bahrain desert for a double-podium performance in today’s Bahrain Grand Prix. Kimi took advantage of saved sets of new tyres from qualifying to vault from eleventh to second, whilst Romain scored an equally impressive seventh to third.

Both cars started on the yellow-marked soft Pirelli P-Zero. Kimi pitted for a set of softs on lap 11, then fresh sets of mediums on laps 24 and 39.

Drivers’ Championship:
Kimi Räikkönen, P7 (34 Points)

Constructors’ Championship:
Lotus F1 Team, P3 (57 Points)

Kimi Räikkönen, P2, E20-03
Fastest Lap, 1:37.116 (Lap 41)

“It’s a great result for the team and we deserve it as everyone has been working very hard. To be honest, I’m slightly disappointed we didn’t take the win because we had the pace. I only had one chance to overtake Sebastian (Vettel) and unfortunately I chose the wrong side to try and get past. If I hadn’t made a small mistake at the start and allowed Felipe (Massa) to get through then maybe it would have been a different story, as we spent quite a lot of time fighting with him. At the end of the day, it’s good to have both cars on the podium, especially after last race which didn’t go to plan, but I honestly think we could have taken the victory today.”

Eric Boullier, Team Principal

"It was a great team performance today and I’m delighted for everyone, both here in the paddock and back at Enstone. The first three races were very frustrating, as we knew we were capable of a result like this. Until now, small details have hindered our performance, so it’s almost a relief to finally show what we are capable of. We took a bit of a gamble on strategy and I’m pleased to say it paid off. Both drivers put in a fantastic performance, and to have two cars not just on the podium but so closely matched all through the race demonstrates what a strong line-up we have. I’m immensely proud of what we’ve achieved today."

Alan Permane, Director of Trackside Operations
“We’ve been saying over the last few races that podium finishes were on their way and today we’ve proved that. To come from eleventh to score a strong second, challenging for the win was an awesome performance from Kimi and shows that the E20 is a superb race car. For Romain to match Kimi’s pace and finish just seven seconds behind him despite having fewer new tyres is a comparably impressive performance. Our race strategy calls today were not as tricky as we’ve seen in other races. We knew we had to make three stops and it became clear as the race went on that our main question was could we beat Sebastian (Vettel)? We gave it a good go. It wasn’t a perfect performance this weekend - we weren’t happy with our performance on the soft tyres in qualifying – but it’s clear we have a car which has the pace to win races. ”

Kimi Räikkönen was fastest of the non-Q3 participants in P11 during qualifying for tomorrow’s Bahrain Grand Prix. Kimi’s starting position outside the top ten means he has an open choice of starting tyre for the race.

Kimi Räikkönen, E20-03. Q: P11, 1:33.789. FP3: P7, 1:33.976.
“We had the speed today and we could easily have gone through to the final session with another run, but we thought it was worth taking the risk to only do one lap in Q2 and save fresh sets of tyres for the race. Managing the tyres will be a priority tomorrow, so while it was a gamble that didn’t get us through to the final session it will hopefully be a strategy which pays off in the race. We knew it was going to be close and of course we always want to be as high up the grid as possible, but there were two options and we went for the one which we believe will deliver the best result on Sunday. There are no points given out on Saturday, so let’s see what happens tomorrow.”

Alan Permane, Director of Trackside Operations:
“It’s going to be a long hot race...”

How do you assess today’s qualifying performance?

“We’re a little bit disappointed with our pace on the soft tyre and we need to assess where we lost out on speed as we didn’t achieve what we thought would be possible with Romain in Q3. Kimi’s pace was comparable to Romain’s and with another set of tyres he could have gone through to Q3.Tomorrow will be all about tyre degradation, so we took the risk not to run Kimi a second time in the Q2 session in order to save tyres. Unfortunately, he was pipped out of the top ten at the last moment. We knew it was a risk not running him again, but the performance penalty of not making Q3 was is not as great as it could have been due to the benefits of the fresh tyres saved for the race.”

How does Kimi’s P11 starting position look when assessing the race strategies?
“It’s better to be starting in P11 with four new sets of tyres available for the race than further up the grid with fewer new sets. Kimi’s in a strong position and there is the potential for a good result. We are capable of running for the entire race with only new tyres and the performance benefits that brings.”

Did you expect better from Romain’s qualifying performance?
“Romain did a great job in Q1 on the prime tyre, but his pace wasn’t quite there with his initial run in Q2 on the soft tyre so we ran him again. In Q3 he made a slight mistake which probably cost around two tenths, and the grid is very close out there.”

What is the difference between the two tyre specifications here?
“We’re seeing around 6-8 tenths, although it appears that some of our rivals are able to extract a bit more pace from the soft tyre than we are. This is not so much of an issue for the race, as we are confident in our long run pace.”

Thoughts for tomorrow?
“It’s going to be a long hot race tomorrow. There’s potential for high tyre degradation and it’s a physical race for the drivers because of the heat. Anything is possible.”

Kimi Räikkönen: "A podium should be possible"

Having come agonisingly close to a great result in China, Kimi puts the past behind him and focuses on his next chance for glory in Bahrain

The Chinese Grand Prix was full of action; how was it from your position?
It was good racing but we ran out of tyre performance during the final stint. I felt comfortable in the car and I could push well, but we lost out in the end. I was not able to get past Felipe (Massa) in the middle part of the race, and I wasn't able to keep Sebastian (Vettel) behind me, but there is still good speed in the car.

What happened when Sebastian got past you?
I had been keeping him behind me, but finally my tyres were too far gone for me to keep him there. I went wide and then I was on the marbles. I had very little traction on the loose stuff and because it was so close a lot of cars went past me. It was then too late to make another stop so it was frustrating. It was the strategy we chose, and I wouldn't have been fighting for second if we'd gone for a three stop. Maybe we should have run a longer second stint, as that worked for Romain. We learnt a lot about the tyres.

Are you frustrated the strategy chosen didn't work?
It looked the best one for us and it worked for Romain. If we had the same information again, we'd probably try the same approach.
It didn't work, but you don't know these things unless you try them.
We will now know better for next time. We were pretty close to finishing on the podium. We didn't. That's racing.

You were racing wheel-to-wheel at times during the race. How was that?
It is what I missed when I was rallying, and it's good to be racing against other cars like that. It was very close at times, but it's called racing so that's what you do.
I thought it must have looked good on television for anyone watching.
I look forward to racing more like that this season.

The team wasn't able to maximise the latest upgrade package at Shanghai – how frustrating was that for you as a driver?
We had a lot of parts but it was wet on Friday morning and very cold in the afternoon. We went back to most of the old spec for Saturday as we knew how it worked. Qualifying was okay, but there was a bigger gap to pole which wasn't what we wanted. We didn't make the car faster which some others did with theirs. The E20 still feels good to drive, but we just need to get a little bit more speed. Hopefully we will find it in Bahrain.

What are your thoughts of the Bahrain International Circuit?
I don't think it will present any particular problems for us. It's likely to be quite hot and our car didn't like the cold so much when we were in China so maybe the heat will suit us better. The track has a mixture of corners and it's quite fun to race on. There are some opportunities to overtake so let's see what happens.

It's another circuit where you have finished on the podium…
I have had a second and three third places in Bahrain which is okay. It is good to race there. We won't know how strong the car will be until we get there. Maybe we will get the upgrades on the car to work properly and we will be able to go faster than in China. Let's see.

How have you enjoyed the first three races?
It's not that different to what it was like before. I don't like the travel so much as the first races are so far away from home, but soon we will be racing in Europe. When you're at the track and in the car you know what you have to do, so it doesn't matter so much about the other stuff. When I'm in the car it feels good, and we're all working to get faster.

Do you think the team is capable of a strong result in Bahrain?
A podium should be possible and I think it has been at all the races we've been at so far. We don't know exactly how good the car will be until we get there, but we don't expect any problems.

Romain Grosjean benefitted from an aggressive tyre strategy whilst Kimi Räikkönen ultimately lost out in a fast-paced and exciting Chinese Grand Prix at the Shanghai International Circuit. Romain went from tenth on the grid to finish in sixth, whilst Kimi ran strongly in second place until his tyres could no longer deliver sufficient performance, finally finishing in 14th.

Both cars started on the yellow-marked soft Pirelli P-Zero and used a further two sets of mediums.
Kimi pitted on laps 10 and 28.
Kimi ran in P2 for laps 41-47. Romain ran in P2 for laps 29-31.

Kimi Räikkönen, P14, E20-03
“We tried to run two stops as it looked to be the fastest strategy and up until the last ten laps it was looking good, but we ran out of tyre performance at the end. I was stuck behind Felipe (Massa) for quite a while and couldn’t get past as I wasn’t fast enough in the right parts of the track to make a move. Even if I’d got past I don’t think it would have made the greatest amount of difference to the final result. We had good pace in the race, we tried a different strategy and it didn’t pay off today; it’s as simple as that.”

Eric Boullier, Team Principal

"It is getting more frustrating for us as we are clearly very close to achieving a very good result. Twelve laps before the end of today’s race we had one car in P2 and one car in P5 with no more pit stops to go. Unfortunately, we were a little bit too aggressive with our strategy. As soon as we understood some cars were doing three stops it was clear there was potential for us to finish on the podium, but we were not expecting the tyre wear to be as high as it was. For Romain the strategy worked; for Kimi it did not. The positives from this weekend are that we continue to show good qualifying and race pace with the E20, and we were capable of fighting for a podium finish with Kimi. Also, it was a very good first full race for Romain. One slow stop and one mistake when fighting with Mark (Webber) for position meaning he ran on the marbles cost him two positions. He recovered very well from this and his pace was very consistent."

Alan Permane, Director of Trackside Operations
“Ten laps before the end of the race, Kimi’s tyres were nearing the end of their life and unfortunately he got on the marbles when Sebastian (Vettel) passed. That was the end of his race effectively as he lost ten places over the course of a lap. We’ll dissect the data and see if a three stop would have been better for us, but everything before the race suggested a two-stop was the way to go, and this approach benefitted Romain. Without the gamble we took with Kimi we wouldn’t have been running in second position so that was the risk we took. I’m happy for Romain to finish his first race of the season. To go from tenth to sixth - racing with the cars of the calibre he was - showed a measured performance so it looks good for the future. We’ve learn a lot this weekend and hopefully we head to Bahrain with an improved car and better understanding of this year’s tyres.”

Ricardo Penteado, Renault Sport F1 Team Support Leader
“Congratulations to Romain on his first points of the season. It was a shame that Kimi could not get a double points finish, but the speed of the package is fundamentally there. Engine-wise we’ve had a trouble free weekend, which is always positive at this type of track where the unit gets a workout over the entire rev range. Driveability through the slow corners was good and the top speed was reasonable, which allowed Romain to defend his position in the closing laps from the Williams and get some decent points for the team today.”

Kimi Räikkönen set the fifth fastest time whilst Romain Grosjean made it through to Q3 but did not set a time in the final session before tomorrow’s Chinese Grand Prix at the Shanghai International Circuit. Kimi benefits from a gearbox change penalty for Lewis Hamilton and will start in P4 for tomorrow’s race whilst Romain will start from P10.

Kimi Räikkönen, E20-03. Q: P5*, 1:35.898. FP3: P10, 1:37.061. *Starts from P4.

“The grid position is okay but when you look at the times, I’m disappointed with the pace of the car today. We’ve gained a position after Lewis’s penalty but the speed wasn’t where it should have been, especially when you look at the pole time. We’ve tried some updates this weekend, but they haven’t worked as we wanted so we’ve gone back to how the car was before. We go into the race less confident in the car than in the last two races, but knowing that we start from a higher position on the grid. Let’s see what we can do tomorrow, we’ll try to do the best we can and hopefully we can be higher up than we are on the grid, and that means a podium.”

Alan Permane, Director of Trackside Operations:

“It should be interesting...”

Both drivers in the top ten again, are we happy with today’s performance? “Kimi is where the car should be and I think he’s reasonably happy with his performance. He did an excellent job through qualifying and considering the build up of this weekend I think we can be reasonably happy. Romain’s absolute pace is very similar to Kimi’s but qualifying is hungry for tyres if you can’t get the pace straight away. Kimi got through to Q3 with just one set of soft tyres, but Romain required three sets, meaning he then didn’t have a fresh set for his Q3 lap. Romain’s got the pace, we just need to unlock that pace on the hard tyre in a qualifying situation.”

What’s the assessment of the weekend so far?
“We brought a new update package for the car and we weren’t convinced by a large part of it yesterday. This meant we reverted almost entirely to our Malaysia specification which is why we have missed out on potential pace from the car. We hope to get all the new elements working soon.”

P4 on the grid is Kimi’s best starting position, what can be done from there?
“We have to take every race as it comes, but we’ve certainly seen that we’ve raced more strongly so far than the two Mercedes ahead of us, but that said we were a long way off the pole time, so they are clearly looking very strong. I’d like to think we can take the race to the other cars around us. We’re confident in our starts and our tyre wear and race pace. It should be interesting.”

China in Your Hand

It’s time for the third Grand Prix of the season.

After the rainy race in Malaysia first I dried myself, did some pr-work in Beirut, went to Enstone factory to have a look on some new things for the car, then I trained properly at home and finally went to see some spectacular action of motocross world championship fight in Holland.

It was a good break, all in all. We are ready to race. I feel fresh and look forward to get with the grips in those very fast long straights and tricky slow-speed corners of Shanghai circuit.

The car should now be even better. We have some interesting new parts and they should give us more speed to challenge the top guys again. But we have to wait to see, how the track suits for our car. So far there has been no problems at all in all the circuits we have driven it.

Previously China has usually been a good place for me. Since the very beginning at Shanghai circuit we have had the speed to fight for the podium places. Our win five years ago in China was the turning point for the championship fight back then.

Let’s hope we have finally a normal weekend without any unnecessary problems. I have a good feeling with the car so far. Obviously, we expect the E20 going well in Shanghai. We will know more, where we are the after the first few laps in the circuit on Friday practise.

Like always my aim is to score good points – and, if possible, to challenge for the top positions. It was very close in Malaysia qualifying, while the gap was so small with all the top cars. The fastest lap on the race was a very positive sign, too.

But you never know beforehand how the weekend goes. China, especially, is one of those places, where the weather factor can very quickly change everything.

You’re going to be in trouble, if you don’t watch out all the time with the weather. The forecast tells us, there will be the typical showers during the weekend, so most likely it’s going to be a matter to get everything right with perfect timings to get out with the good results.

It’s China in our hands, for sure...

Two races in – how does it feel to be back?

Two races done, eighteen to go.

So far it has been more or less alright for me and the racing isn’t any different than before. The E20 certainly feels good. We’re workingto get the steering exactly right for me – and we’re almost there. The speed in the car is good – and this applies to qualifying and race pace. It’s been two frustrating races in terms of where we started. We shouldn’t have started so far back in Australia, and the penalty for changing the gearbox before the Malaysian Grand Prix cost us finishing positions too, but that’s motor racing.

The E20 certainly seems to have good pace…

We can say it looks good so far. The car was very good in qualifying at both races. Romain was third in Australia then I was fifth fastest in Malaysia. At Sepang it could have been better. I made a couple of mistakes in the final run in Q3. I lost some time there, so it could have been better than fifth, fourth or even third. I felt the speed was there in the car. Obviously, it was a good car to qualify.

Race pace doesn’t seem bad either; you’re back to setting race fastest laps…

The race was difficult with the conditions and honestly the best approach was to fight to keep the P5 position. When I first went out on the slicks it was so dark that it was difficult to see the dry line on the circuit. Once I could make out the line I drove fast enough to keep the position. I felt that there was more pace possible from the car but I didn’t want to take any risks. To set the race’s fastest lap is nice, but not as good as winning.

How was the feeling with the Pirelli wet tyres?

It was my debut with the latest wet weather tyres. When the lights went out, I had to take it easy, because I simply didn‘t know how they would behave. Obviously we had done only one installation lap with them beforehand, so we didn‘t even know how to adjust the front wing for the wet race. But the start went okay, we actually managed to gain a few places, but then there was an incident with a couple of cars in front of me, so I had to go on the grass again like in Australia to avoid them. I lost some places, but I made it through the first lap, anyway.

What are your thoughts of the Shanghai International Circuit?

It’s just another race track – I don’t have particular favourites or anything like that. It’s quite similar to Albert Park and Sepang in what it requires from the car so that should be good for us. We have some new parts for the E20 so that should also be good. I’m sure all the other teams have new parts for their cars too, so we won’t know where we are until we get there.

You’ve gone pretty well in China before, you must have a good feeling going there?

I won there in 2007 and that was a good feeling as that was the year I won the World Championship. It’s a proper race track and there are good opportunities for overtaking. Our car looks good so let’s see what happens when we get out on track.

Are you happy with the development progress of the E20 and the evolving relationship with the team?

The team is working very hard to keep us going to the right direction. Obviously, we have a good and solid car to work with. It has been quick everywhere so far. The weather and other situations at the two races we’ve had mean we haven’t seen the best of it. I feel comfortable with my relationship with the team. It’s clear they are racers like me and that is the best way to get the maximum from the season.

Good vibrations! Well, two races done, eighteen to go. So far it¹s been more or less all right for me. I¹ve been having a good time, that¹s for sure. You never know about racing; Everything can happen like the Malaysian Grand Prix showed us all. In a race while it rains like that and they stop it for a while, it opens up a chance for the handicapped cars, too. If you get your timing perfectly right, you get a free road, see well and you can fight for the top place. Wish it would have been us... But it¹s useless to get too thrilled afterwards, while, obviously, it doesn¹t change the result any more. The team has working very hard to keep us going to the right direction. Obviously, we have a good and solid car to work with. It¹s been quick everywhere. The weather and some happenings in the course of race weekend have not done us any favours, but that¹s motor racing. You just have to deal with what ever occurs and try to get best out of it. We had some work to do after Friday sessions. The car was not working properly. We lacked downforce, there was something wrong with the floor and we didn¹t have KERS on our long run in the afternoon. The boys did very well. They put a new floor, changed the set-up and then the car felt much better from then on. It was a shame the gearbox had some overheating issue in Melbourne. The team decided to avoid all the risks of DNF in the race, so they decided to change it before P3. Obviously, that meant a penalty of loosing 5 places in the grid. The car was very good in the qualifying. I made a mistake in the final run in Q3 while exiting the corner. We lost there some time, so it could have been better than fifth, forth or even third. I felt the speed was there in the car. Obviously, it was a good car to qualify!

The race was one of those typical gambles in the torrial rain of the tropic. For me it was my debut with the rain tyres. While the lights went off, I had to take it easy, because I simply didn¹t know how the tyres are behaving. Obviously, we had done only one installation lap before with the wet tyre, so we didn¹t even know how to adjust the front wing for the wet race. But, the start went ok, actually we managed to gain a few places, but then there was an incident with a couple of cars in front of me, so I had to go to the grass again like in Australia to avoid them. I lost some places, but we made it through the first lap, any way. The car was good. After the safety-car situation I was behind Vettel. We could easily follow the Red Bull and we were faster in some places, they were faster in some other places. It was too tricky to try to pass him, so we just sat there and waited for the track to dry up. The rest of the race with slicks was more or less like keeping the P5. We could have go faster, but it became so dark, it was very difficult to see where are wet pots in the track. So it was better to seal the position and not to take too many risks. Now we have 16 points. It¹s better than nothing, but it could have been better. The best feeling is coming from the car. Obviously, we will get some new parts for the next race in China, so it should keep us competitive in Shanghai, too.

Kimi Räikkönen led the charge for Lotus F1 Team in the Malaysian Grand Prix; translating a tenth place starting slot into a fifth-placed finish in a rain-affected, red flag-interrupted race. He also set the fastest lap of the day as the track dried in the run to the chequered flag.

Both cars started on the green marked intermediate tyres. Kimi made three stops with an intermediate, wet, intermediate, hard tyre strategy. Kimi set a succession of fastest laps on the hard tyres as the track dried, culminating with a 1min 40.722secs on lap 53. It was the 36th Grand Prix fastest lap of his career.

Kimi Räikkönen, P5, E20-03
“It was a bit difficult today. It was my first time on the wet weather Pirellis and I didn’t know how the intermediate or wet tyres would react – I had only completed one installation lap on them before. I just tried to stay on the road and push as much as I felt comfortable with. When I changed to the dry tyres it took a couple of laps to get heat into them, and my visor was pretty dirty so seeing the dry line was difficult. Once I found my way I could push much harder. It was difficult to have another mixed weather weekend. The conditions changed a lot today so it was always a case of adapting and looking for grip. Overall, we seemed to have a pretty strong package again this weekend, so I’m relatively happy. A fifth today was okay, but we’re always looking for better results.”

Eric Boullier, Team Principal
"Today’s result is a bit frustrating. Whilst it’s good to have a car finish in the top five after starting from tenth in conditions which were very tricky, we can’t help thinking that we could have achieved more from this race. Obviously, it’s disappointing for Romain, as it’s another DNF for him in the early laps of the race. He had never driven in the rain with these intermediate tyres so we have to take that into account. He had a very good start off the line, but the contact with Michael ruined his race. At the restart, we recovered well from our position and on the plus side, the car looked strong again. Kimi had a flawless race. He was very consistent in all conditions and his best lap shows what could have been without his grid penalty. I’m sure when we have a ‘standard’ weekend - without bad weather, penalty or interruption – we will do very well."

James Allison, Technical Director
“What we would give for a normal race! We had to fight back from a grid penalty for changing the gearbox on Kimi’s car. We also had two drivers learning Pirelli’s wet tyres for the first time today. This made for a difficult time here at Sepang. Our pace at the end of the race on dry tyres looks extremely promising from the perspective of both degradation and pace. Give us a normal race, with two clean getaways from the good qualifying positions of which we have shown we are capable, and I think we’ll be able to collect a good reward.”

Ricardo Penteado, Renault Sport F1 Team Support Leader
“Another points scoring finish for Kimi here. Again it was a shame for Romain but over the course of the weekend we confirmed the pace seen in Australia of the Lotus-Renault package. The changeable weather made it very difficult to manage fuel consumption. We burned a lot of fuel at the second start, which allowed us to be lighter towards the final laps. This played out well as Kimi set the fastest lap of the race on lap 53. Overall the engine has worked perfectly and we’re now looking forward to China, which presents a very different challenge.”

Kimi Räikkönen set the fifth fastest time whilst Romain Grosjean was seventh quickest in qualifying for tomorrow’s Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang International Circuit. Kimi will start from tenth position on the grid for the race after a penalty for a gearbox change on his car. This moves Romain up to sixth place.

Kimi Räikkönen, E20-03.
Q: P5*, 1:36.461.
FP3: P4, 1:37.356.
*Plus five place grid penalty.

Kimi: “The car was working well today. Unfortunately, I made a couple of mistakes on my fastest lap which probably cost a couple of tenths. Without that, we were in with a shout for pole today. I got a little bit sideways at the exit of turn nine and we lost some time, but that’s how it goes sometimes. We had some issues with KERS yesterday, but there was no repeat today; the car worked exactly as it should and it felt good. It’s a shame we have a penalty on the grid but the car works well. Today was definitely a positive day. Tomorrow we start from tenth and will try to improve from there.”

Alan Permane, Director of Trackside Operations: “We always want more...”

Two drivers in the top ten. That’s a bit more like it…
“Obviously we’re happy from today’s performance, but as ever in Formula 1 we always want more. Kimi felt he made a mistake in a couple of corners, and with a perfect lap he could have certainly done better, but overall to have the fifth and seventh fastest cars in qualifying was encouraging.”

What can we expect from the race tomorrow?
“Looking at all the data, we should expect a strong race. We have a good handle on the tyres in these conditions. We have good set-ups which both drivers feel very happy with. Weather permitting, we should expect to have both cars in the points tomorrow.”

We changed Kimi’s gearbox. Are there any concerns going into the race?
“None at all. We saw high temperatures on Kimi’s gearbox in Australia after the cooler was blocked by grass and debris. It completed most of the race like this. We checked both gearboxes thoroughly and there were no concerns with Romain’s gearbox. Kimi has a new ‘box on his car – for which we receive a five place grid penalty – but this was necessary.”

Sepang is notorious for its variable weather. How do you plan a race strategy for this?
“We plan for a dry race and the fastest strategy possible given our grid positions. We monitor the weather reports and satellite information as well as looking at the skies in the build-up to the race, and we have a plan in case it rains. It’s almost impossible to make a concrete wet race strategy in advance as there are so many variables involved. It’s a time when all of us on the pit wall really have to earn our salaries with our strategy calls. It’s a time for cool heads and calm decisions.”

Kimi Räikkönen and Romain Grosjean took to the track for the first practice sessions of the second round of the 2012 Formula 1 World Championship at Sepang in hot and humid conditions today. Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director - Technical programme notes In FP1 we completed general set-up work followed by race set-up work in FP2. We ran solely with Pirelli’s hard compound in the first session. Kimi concentrated on the medium tyre in the afternoon session; Romain concentrated on the hard. This was a ‘standard’ Friday programme, distinct from the rain-interrupted first day in Melbourne. We evaluated a new steering rack set-up for Kimi in both session. Kimi’s KERS was not operating perfectly in the afternoon session. What we learned today: The E20 worked well on the Sepang circuit with a good baseline set-up. Our initial impressions are that we are in good shape for Sunday’s race. Kimi reported a small improvement from the latest steering specification, which we will use for the rest of this weekend. Kimi Räikkönen, E20-03 Free practice 1: P7, 1:38.919, 17 laps Free practice 2: P15, 1:39.696, 22 laps Kimi: “It was an okay day but we still have work to do on the set-up. The steering was a small improvement but we are still working in this area. I feel fine in the car in the hot conditions, and the race will take place later in the day so I don’t expect that to be a problem. I hope we will make some progress tomorrow as the car is quicker than we’ve shown. Having an issue with the KERS in the afternoon was frustrating but I’m sure we’ll have it fixed for tomorrow. The track is exactly as I remember it and I hope for a better qualifying than we had in Australia. I’m looking forward to racing here.” James Allison, Technical Director: “In some ways it was a somewhat scrappy day after losing a tyre set on Romain’s car in the afternoon due to a cut which meant he lost some laps in the second session. He also had an incorrectly seated wheel nut in the morning. Kimi’s KERS was not playing ball for most of the second session which meant his pace was not fully representative. Those were today’s nuisances, but the positives are that the E20 is working reasonably well. We have good base set-ups for both drivers. Tyre management looks OK despite the hot conditions. The pace of the car on high fuel loads looks promising.”

The heat is on! It¹s signed, sealed and delivered with the Australian Grand Prix. Right now I¹m trying to get grips with the next challenge here in the hot and humid equatorial climate of Malaysia. Obviously, it was very nice and rewarding to open the season with some good points. Honestly, I didn¹t know that much what to expect from the first race weekend after two years¹ break. We got a good feeling in the car since the day one in Jerez, but you never know exactly how competitive the new equipment is compared to other new cars.

Well, now we know a little bit, at least. I always felt I could make a return to Grand Prix racing, but, I can confess now, I got some good answers to my own minor doubts how quickly you can adapt the racing rhythm after being away for some time. The speed is there. That¹s ok. The car is good.

That¹s ok, as well. Some issues were to be improved, especially in the qualifying routine. I knew already before going to Melbourne, that it takes some time to get everything together in the best way with all the new things there are with tactical and mechanical part of the whole qualifying prosedure. On Saturday I wasn¹t happy at all. We had some issues that put as in a very poor situation to start the race. All in all, I¹ve got a perfect start from the line and, obviously, it could have been very good for the race.

But the first corner mess-up with some cars took my advantage away, I had to back-off and we had to build up again the race to reach the TOP-10. The first set of tyres didn¹t feel that good, but then I saw the other people having even more problems with them, so I just sat back and went for it. It was quite tricky to get past the cars. The DRS doesn¹t help that much in Albert Park-like circuit and while I was battling against Saubers, they were too strong coming out of the last corner, where the DRS zones started.

The safety-car situation didn¹t help, as well. I¹ve got a set of brand new tyres, but after the race re-started, it was very difficult to get them working properly. Finally everything went well. We got some places back in the last lap and I was quite satisfield finishing seventh in that first race. As a team we know, we have a solid and consistent car to work with. It¹s nice to have a race again this week. Sepang is the place with some nice memories for me, while we won a Malaysian Grand Prix both with McLaren and Ferrari. The heat is a little bit too much, but it¹s the same for everybody. I just sit back again, put my head down and try to get the best out of the car and myself, too. The heat is on!

Lotus F1 Team kicked off the 2012 Formula 1 season with a day of mixed emotions in Melbourne. Kimi Räikkönen mounted a superb comeback charge, slicing through the field from his P18 grid slot to finish well inside the points in 7th.

Both cars started on the yellow marked soft compound tyres. Kimi made two stops, opting for a soft-soft-medium strategy. Romain retired before making a stop. Romain’s retirement was caused by a collision with Pastor Maldonado at turn 13, where the Williams driver made contact with his right front wheel, breaking the steering.

Kimi started the race’s final lap in P10 and finished it in P7.

Kimi Räikkönen, P7, E20-03

“It feels like I’ve never been away. Yesterday we made some mistakes which cost us quite badly so it could easily have been better in the race. I made a good start but then there was an accident in front of me at the first turn, so we lost a few places there as I had to almost stop and move onto the grass to avoid it. That made the race harder again as we had the speed, but a lot of traffic to get through. When you look at all these things we could have finished in a much better position. We had the safety car which I think actually hurt us a bit as well. Overall the weekend was far from ideal, but the car feels good and to come back to 7th means we at least come away with some points.”

Eric Boullier, Team Principal

"We should be leaving Australia with mixed feelings, but actually we all have a little grin on our faces tonight. Yes, we had great expectations from Romain after his third position in qualifying, and seeing another car taking him out of the race early on was very disappointing. But on the other hand, the performance shown by the E20 this weekend makes us optimistic for the rest of the season. The team has produced a very solid car, responsive to set-up changes, and quick. It has been a tough winter, and I’d like to congratulate everybody at Enstone for their hard work which seems to have paid off. I’m proud to be part of a team that can take blows like we suffered in 2011 and still bounce back to show what we are made of. Kimi has been able to demonstrate that we have more than just single-lap pace; gaining 11 places in his first race after a two-year break is certainly a satisfying performance. We’re now all looking forward to Sepang, a completely different track, where we hope we’ll be able to put on another decent show. We think there’s definitely more to come from us."

James Allison, Technical Director

“Though we may have some disappointment from the race, when you look at the weekend overall we can be proud about how the car, team and our drivers have performed as it’s a much more satisfying story. Starting from P3 on the grid, we hoped for something better than P7. However, for Kimi to have converted his rather lowly grid position into a handful of points gives us some consolation. Most importantly, however, the car looks quick and we are optimistic of bringing home strong results with both cars in Malaysia.”

Ricardo Penteado, Renault Sport F1 Team Support Leader

“Australia is a hard track engine-wise as we need to deliver responsiveness out of the slow and medium speed corners for good acceleration down the straights. However this makes fuel consumption very high, so careful engine management is needed. Across the weekend we’ve worked very well as a partnership, with a strong starting position for Romain and ultimately an excellent race result from Kimi giving us a decent amount of points from the first race. Our aim now is to build on this strong form in Malaysia, which puts a very different set of stresses on the RS27.”