Räikkönen's contract with the Lotus was published on 28 November. Few days later GP2 champion Grosjean was hired to partner Finnish world champion.At that time, he told L'Equipe newspaper that he knows Kim's image and is nervous, how the man really is.
After Jerez test session Grosjean confessed that his impression of Räikkönen was immediately changed, when they briefly exchanged opinions about the test during the day.
- It was a really pleasant surprise, how Kimi is. I wondered a little what kind of relationship we will have, but even if we are not close, we get along very well and Kimi feels like a nice guy from the beginning. When I ask, he answers. It feels really nice at this point, Grosjean praised.
Raikkonen was driving on Wednesday, but when the floor fell apart on the curb of the track, the Finnish driver walked to the bus, where Grosjean was spending time.
- When Kimi came to the bus, I asked, was there a problem in the car. He replied that yes, and then we talked about the car and his experiences of it, Grosjean explained.
Telemetry in place
On Wednesday evening Grosjean became acquainted with telemetry of Räikkönen, who was already on his way home, to know at what point Kimi brakes and where he accelerates.
- I did not see anything strange, and then when I was driving on Thursday, our telemetry were nearly identical. It is very encouraging when our driving styles seems to be so close to each other.
On Friday, Grosjean focused on longer stints on different rubber compounds.
Raikkonen drove 192 laps in two days, while Grosjean got 212 laps. Be course Raikkonen drove on filming session 22 laps, mileage is pretty much the same. Most laps in Jerez drove Bruno Senna of Williams, who got 249 rounds.
The car is better
- This is definitely better than our last year's car, which I drove in Abu Dhabi's and Brazil's practice session. On the last season team learned how to improve different things. The car is now immediately good to drive. F1 has never been easy to drive, but with this we can play, and it is a major asset, 25-year-old French driver praised.
Biggest challenge at this point, Grosjean says, is to understand how tyres work with the car. Pirelli's characters are still the same as last season, and in certain circuits it means finding some compromises for drivers and engineers.
Grosjean drove in 2009 seven last races with Fernando Alonso. Thus throughout his F1 career, there has always been a world champion as a team mate.
Turun Sanomat, Jerez de la Frontera
HEIKKI KULTA
Courtesy: reppo
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