Kimi disappointed with P7, still high on motivation

New Delhi, 27 Oct 2012: Lotus drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean were left disappointed by qualifying for the Indian Grand Prix, with the seventh-placed Finn saying more was expected from the team’s E20 car.

“We changed the car after this morning’s session and we were quite confident heading in to qualifying,” he said. “Unfortunately, we didn’t seem to have any grip this afternoon so it was much more difficult than we thought. I’m quite disappointed to be starting from seventh as I thought we had a much better car than that.”

Grosjean, meanwhile, was even more disappointed after missing out on Q3 by less than two hundredths of a second.

“I was expecting better so I’m a little disappointed,” said the Frenchman, who will start the race from 11th place. “However in terms of strategy, P11 has one advantage as you’re the first car that can choose the tyres it will start the race on and I have a couple of new sets in my pocket for tomorrow.

“I wish I could have got through into Q3 and lacking two hundredths of a second to make it there was frustrating,” he added. “On my second timed lap I was doing well, but for whatever reason the car snapped on me and I lost time. It was difficult to get everything right, but we’re looking strong to score some good points tomorrow.”

Trackside Operations Director Alan Permane said: “It was a disappointing result. Romain reported poor overall grip in all corners, whereas Kimi had issues with the low speed corners – a nervous car on entry and poor traction on exit – which are typical comments made about a car which is lacking in all round grip.”

Permane concluded that advancing from their grid positions could prove difficult.

“We will do what we can in the race but we’ve seen very low tyre degradation and overtaking is difficult due to the circuit layout and DRS setup,” he said.

Earlier on Thursday, Kimi answered a few questions about the Indian GP and the BIC track which is new to him.

You gained another solid haul of points last time out; are you satisfied with the result in Korea?

I think fifth was about where we should have been. There were a couple of times where we were in a position to make up some places and – for different reasons – were not able to, but even so we didn’t quite have the speed to match the Red Bulls and Ferraris. I was pretty much on my own at the end of the race but we had to keep pushing to maintain position and it wasn’t so easy. I wouldn’t say it was a fantastic race but at the end of the day we still picked up points for the championship so it wasn’t too bad.

Just four races to go now; what can you hope to achieve before the end of the season?

There’s no point setting targets; we just need to keep working as hard as we can to score strong points and see what happens from there. In terms of the championship, the gap to Sebastian [Vettel] is quite big now so it will be very difficult to catch him, but we’ll keep pushing all the way.

How is your motivation as the goal of the Championship becomes harder to attain?

We have to keep working hard and keep a high level of motivation. Personally I feel my own motivation is very high – like it has always been. I’m keen to get the best results I can. Of course, in 2007 the championship wasn’t decided until the last race so anything is possible. Let’s see what

happens.

What have you heard about India as a formula 1 destination?

India is a brand new place for me. Like with Korea, I’ve never been to the country before which means I’ve never seen the circuit properly. I’m not like other drivers, so I haven’t driven the simulator to learn it, but all in all it’s not that much of a tricky situation. I like to go to different places and the challenge of driving a new circuit is always interesting. So far I’ve learnt tracks after a few laps in FP1 on Fridays. I didn’t have any problems learning the Yeongam circuit that way, and I don’t expect to have any issues here either. As for India, I have never visited the country before… I have certainly enjoyed Indian restaurants in almost every country I’ve been to though!

Any special considerations for the weekend?

We know this circuit is likely to be very dusty at the start of the weekend so that will make things interesting for the first practice sessions. We’ll have some new things on the car and it will be our

second time with the new exhaust system so hopefully we can make more gains with our pace. India

should also be pretty hot which should suit us. I’m looking forward to it.

ends