The first part of the season is behind us. Our target was to improve from what we got in first four races of 2012, and, obviously, we have gain some better results, and, the most importantly, a few more points.

Winning and clinching podiums has given a good basis for this championship campaign. We have not had the fastest car, but it¹s realiable and competitive, so no complaints so far.

The Bahrain weekend showed again, how crucial it is to get a top result in qualifying. We didn¹t have the speed for one lap, my lap was not perfect and all in all, we dropped too many places behind the leaders.

The race itself was a matter of taking care of the tyres. I was already on Friday thinking of two stops, and, it prooved to be the fastest way for us in the race. It could have been a little bit easier with the Force India, but we played it safe and I stopped quite early.

There was no way to fight for the victory against Vettel. We got second and third place and, for sure, that was a great result for the team. Obviously, we have work to do to keep on fighting with the top guys, but so far, so good. I¹m quite happy with that.

Now it¹s time to move to European season, starting from Barcelona. This is so refreshing time of the year. I don¹t like the long journeys, so it¹s nice to be that much closer to the racing circuits from home. For Barcelona everybody will bring new parts to their cars. It¹s going to be interesting to see, how it turns out to be there in Friday practice.

Kimi Räikkönen took his third podium finish of the season and Romain Grosjean his first after a superb second and third place result in today’s Bahrain Grand Prix. After emulating the 2-3 result of the same result as last year, Lotus F1 Team returns to second position in the Constructors’ Championship with Kimi leading the chase of leader Sebastian Vettel from second in the Drivers’ standings.

- Kimi suffered from an allergic reaction before he started the race.
- Kimi started from P8 with used medium tyres, changing to new hard tyres on laps 16 and 34.

Kimi Räikkönen, P2, E21-03
“You’re never really happy if you don’t win, but I suppose second place is as close as you can get. I drove to the maximum and the car had the pace that we missed in qualifying yesterday so it was a pretty good result. We didn’t have the speed to challenge Sebastian [Vettel] today but we did have the pace to get both cars on the podium so I’m happy for the team.”

Eric Boullier, Team Principal
"Here we are again, just like in 2012! This time around though it was much more difficult – especially after a qualifying performance which fell below our expectations – but we’ve shown flashes of pace throughout the weekend and confirmed that speed when it mattered today. The win was not quite within our reach after the start we made, but to come away with a double podium when the top six would maybe have been a more realistic pre-race target was a great performance from everybody involved. I’m delighted for the whole team here in Bahrain and back at Enstone; it’s a well-deserved result.”