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. ”