Back-to-back - not too bad

The back-to-back British and German Grands Prix are done. We got 28 points altogether from these two, and that brought us a little bit closer to the leaders. So not too bad ­ but it could have been better, obviously, much better even...

We had a disappointing qualifying session in Silverstone. Then the weather improved for the race day, and so did our car, as well.

It was a race filled with all kind of happenings. We didn't have that many problems with the tyres, but, at the end of the day, we should have tried different strategies for the last laps of the race.

It could have been an easy podium finish. Now we lost three positions in the last few laps and got only P5. Sebastian Vettel had to stop because of a technical problem and he was left without any points. That was a good opportunity to come much closer than we managed to do.

In Germany the weather in a race day was even better. We had a good weekend overall. The qualifying could have been a couple of tenths better, so we could have been right behind the front row. Now we started forth and then stuck behind Mercedes for a few laps.

The race went well. We had the speed to fight for the top place. The problem with the radio was causing problems right while we would have needed it the most. The options between staying on and race until the finish with the used prime tyre was a risky one, but very tempting, as well. We took the other way and changed the option tyre for the last stint.

It brought us home in the P2. It's good to finish in a podium, especially in Germany for me, but this time it could have been better, too. We didn't have any issues with the car and with the tyres.

The warm weather suits us very well. Let's hope it will be hot in Hungary, too. It's still a long season and there is no reason to start focussing on anything else but winning.

Kimi Räikkönen and Romain Grosjean returned to the podium with Kimi taking second and Romain third in a fast-paced German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring. Kimi finished just 1.008 seconds behind race winner Sebastian Vettel, who took his first home Grand Prix victory. Kimi remains in third position in the Drivers’ Championship with 116 points, but closes the gap from Fernando Alonso (123) to seven points. The team was the highest scoring in the Constructors’ Championship today, remaining in fourth place on 157 points, with Ferrari on 180 in third.

- Kimi started from P5 with a scrubbed set of soft tyres, changing to new medium compound tyres on laps 8 and 24 and a final set of scrubbed soft tyres on lap 49.

Kimi Räikkönen, P2, E21-03
“We had a pretty good last stint of the race, but the cars are close on performance so it’s difficult to overtake. Maybe some more laps would have helped us, but the race is only 60 laps so you have to do your best with that. After my first stop I was stuck behind a Mercedes for a while, but once I was past the car was pretty good. After the safety car three of us were able to pull away, but we were too close on speed to change the order. It was a good day for the team. Of course, we wanted to win; we couldn’t, but we did score the most points here. The warmer temperatures definitely helped us, so let’s hope for some more hot weather in Budapest.” 

Kimi Räikkönen qualified fourth with Romain Grosjean fifth after a hotly contested qualifying session for tomorrow’s German Grand Prix. Today’s placings make for the team’s second best qualifying performance this season, after qualifying second and sixth for the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Kimi Räikkönen, E21-03. Q: P4, 1:30.676. FP3: P6, 1:30.671
“My car was okay today, but in my Q3 lap on the new tyres I struggled to get the fronts up to temperature which meant I lost quite a bit of time in the first sector; probably because there was traffic on my out lap meaning I couldn’t push as much as I wanted. For sure it didn’t help and we probably should have been P3 today, but P4 is still a pretty good place to be for the race.”

Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director:

How was qualifying for the team?
We’re reasonably happy with today’s performance. Of course, you always want more and we could have got a little more from both cars in the final qualifying session as neither driver posted a good first sector. That said, with P4 and P5 on the grid, we’re happy. How’s it looking for the race?
We know that our race simulations yesterday looked good and the forecast is for high temperatures tomorrow, so I think we can look forward to having a strong race.
br> How are the tyres working here?
The new rear construction with the Kevlar belt doesn’t appear to be hurting our performance and we’re as competitive as we thought we’d be here so we’ve no worries on that front.

Any particular strategy considerations for the race?
The medium compound looks to be the favoured one for the race as the soft has a reasonably high performance degradation; such that we have seen Ferrari opt to start on the medium compound as their approach to managing it. It will be interesting to see how that approach works; from our side, we’re pretty happy with starting on the soft.

NB - Kimi was promoted 3rd place in the race after Vettel was penalised. The release below was issued prior to Vettel's penalty was announced

Lotus F1 Team finished in a fighting fourth with Kimi Räikkönen at the German Grand Prix, whilst Romain Grosjean battled back from first lap wing and tyre damage to finish in eighteenth position at the Hockenheim circuit this afternoon. Despite having yet to join the list of seven race winners thus far this season, Kimi moves up to an impressive fourth place in the Driver’s Championship whilst Romain drops a spot to eighth. The team also moves down one place to fourth in the Constructors’ Championship, just one point off third position.

- Both drivers started on new soft compound Pirelli tyres.
- Romain stopped on lap 1 to replace his front wing and change to new medium compound tyres.
- Romain pitted again on lap 24 for a further set of mediums and a third time on lap 42 for softs.
- Kimi stopped on lap 11 for soft compound and lap 38 for new medium compound tyres.

Kimi Räikkönen, P4, E20-05
"We did the best we could today from the position we started. My start was okay, but then I think Lewis [Hamilton] had a problem in front of me and I had to slow down to avoid hitting the back of his car. This let Paul [Di Resta] through in the DRS zone and from there we had a big hill to climb as it was tricky to get back past. Maybe if we had found a bit more pace in the wet yesterday we could have started higher and pushed the leaders, but it is what it is. For sure we were hoping for a bit better here, but the car worked well all through the race and we still brought home some good points for the team so there are some positives to take to the next race.”

Eric Boullier, Team Principal
"We saw a great recovery from Kimi after yesterday’s issues. It was a very strong and experienced drive coupled with a good strategy from the team. Starting in tenth and nineteenth positions we were always going to have our work cut out, so it’s good to see Kimi score big points again and display strong race pace. With Romain it was a difficult first lap and he had to fight with a damaged car from then on. We have all seen him have very good weekends, so we need to ensure that he has solid weekends even when circumstances mean he starts from the back of the grid. As a team we had the same pace as the frontrunners so there is no question about our capacity to score podiums and maybe a win one day.”

Alan Permane, Director of Trackside Operations
“Romain was compromised by his first lap incident which severely damaged his floor, losing him a lot of downforce. With Kimi moving tenth to fourth we saw the strategy work as we wanted it to. We were hoping to be able to get on the podium but the first few laps cost a bit too much time. Ultimately we could run at the pace of the leaders, but we were just too far back to make the top three today. It’s a familiar story we know all too well ; we have to qualify better to get stronger results. The wet weather of Saturday really hurt us in qualifying here, so hopefully we can bounce back in Budapest and do a good job.”

Ricardo Penteado, Renault Sport F1 Team Support Leader
“Hockenheim is a tough race on engines, with high top speeds around the first part of the lap but a twistier section in the back stadium section. Fuel consumption is also very high which was something we needed to watch throughout the race. It was a great performance from Kimi. He had the same pace as the top three, but starting in tenth he was not going to be able to realistically fight for the lead. Romain had a long race after the first lap incident so we decided to run some safer engine settings to be able to be more aggressive in the race where the engine will be used next.”

After demonstrating a promisingly brisk car in dry conditions, Kimi Räikkönen claimed tenth position during a rain afflicted qualifying session for tomorrow’s German Grand Prix, while Romain Grosjean was fifteenth fastest but will start in twentieth position due to a penalty for a gearbox change.

Kimi Räikkönen, E20-05. Q : P10, 1:45.811. FP3 : P4, 1:16.238

“We weren’t fast in the wet today for some reason and we need to look at why that was. I wasn’t able to get any grip from the tyres, even when we tried a fresh set of wets half way through the final qualifying session. In the dry the car is very good and in the races our car usually has strong pace. Let’s hope for some dry weather tomorrow and see what happens.”

Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director :
“A frustrating session.”
How do you assess today’s qualifying performance ?
“Qualifying was a frustrating session. In the dry we looked to be comfortably one of the quickest cars out there, but as soon as it rained we really struggled with both. We will obviously investigate why we weren’t able to extract any pace at the crucial time today.”

What can be done in the race ?
“The forecast is for a dry race and we are confident in our pace in those conditions, particularly over a race distance. Kimi can still have a good race from P10 on the grid and we’re looking at the strategy options for him. Romain has more work to do from P20, but it’s a relatively easy track in terms of overtaking with DRS so we can still achieve a good result.”