skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Kimi's comments:
- Alonso, who is leading the series, got more points than us. That is never a good thing. It doesn't matter if you're second, third or fourth if the top guy runs away in points, Räikkönen said to MTV3.
- Not the easiest weekend, but at least we got something done so that it didn't turn out a complete catastrophe, Kimi continued.
- Our pace just isn't enough in the straights. I couldn't compete against them. I had to try to do only one stop. We barely were able to keep the fifth spot. It was a relatively difficult weekend, but the main thing is that we got some points and we didn't lose that much points against Alonso, Räikkönen said.
The topspeed-tracks Spa and Monza are now over. Räikkönen hopes that the tracks in the rest of the season are better for the Lotus-car.
- They are more normal tracks. I hope that our cars would work better in them or otherwise we don't have chances of any kind.
Source: MTV3
Courtesy: Leijona
Kimi Räikkönen: We go into the race less confident in the car than in the last two races, but knowing that we start from a higher position on the grid. Let's see what we can do tomorrow, we'll try to do the best we can...
Kimi Räikkönen was disappointed following qualifying for the F1 2012 Chinese Grand Prix today, even though he set the fifth fastest time.
Räikkönen, who will actually start from the second row of the grid in fourth, benefiting from the gearbox penalty that has been handed to Lewis Hamilton, felt the speed of his Lotus E20 just wasn't 'where it should have been' and he finished Q3 over eight tenths off pole position.
The Finn also revealed that the updates the team have brought to Shanghai haven't work as they had hoped and as a result the squad has reverted 'almost entirely' to the Malaysia car specification.
“The grid position is okay but when you look at the times, I'm disappointed with the pace of the car today,” Räikkönen confirmed. “We've gained a position after Lewis's penalty but the speed wasn't where it should have been, especially when you look at the pole time.
“We've tried some updates this weekend, but they haven't worked as we wanted so we've gone back to how the car was before. We go into the race less confident in the car than in the last two races, but knowing that we start from a higher position on the grid. Let's see what we can do tomorrow, we'll try to do the best we can and hopefully we can be higher up than we are on the grid, and that means a podium.”
Team-mate Romain Grosjean meanwhile also made it through to the shootout, however, he did not set a time, as unlike the other nine runners in Q3, he didn't have a new set of soft tyres left. He will start in P10.
“I have mixed feelings after today's session. After struggling a bit yesterday it's great to have both cars in Q3, but unfortunately after a terrible first run in Q2 we were forced to use up all our new sets of soft tyres before the final session. This meant there was no point trying to set a competitive time in the pole position shoot out which is a real shame, as our pace in Q2 was good,” Grosjean commented.
“I feel much more comfortable with the car and I think that shows in the lap times today. The team did a great job to turn things around and get us back towards the top where we should be. I still have some fine tuning to do but 56 laps in tomorrow's race will certainly help that!”
Source: Crash.net
Ferrari's Fernando Alonso admits his car could not compete with the pace of the Red Bulls at the Belgian Grand Prix.
The Spanish driver says he had a "fun race", especially the battle he had with Mark Webber
Source: SixtyBuckss
Mark Webber has to settle for third after a race long battle for victory in the German Grand Prix
Mark Webber said he was disappointed not to convert pole position into victory after settling for third in the German Grand Prix.
The Red Bull driver, who took his maiden win the last time the race was held at the circuit back in 2009, lost out to Lewis Hamilton when the lights went out although he was able to get back ahead of the McLaren driver during the first round of pitstops and held his lead through the middle of the race.
However, the second round of stops saw the Australian lose out to both Hamilton and Ferrari's Fernando Alonso and he was then unable to find a way back to the head of the field as he was forced to settle for the bottom step of the podium.
Although it allowed him to slightly close the gap in the championship to team-mate Sebastian Vettel, the third place finish means Webber has now failed to convert pole into victory in five successive races.
“I'm disappointed not to get the win today – but it's another good result,” he reflected at the finish. “At the end we needed to try and do something a bit different; we led the middle part of the race, but we couldn't get the tyre range around the pit stops to get the undercut on the second stop. I drove on the limit, but we were not quick enough and that was it. Lewis was able to cover us all the time and respond to my pace, so you couldn't get the gap. He got a good start and mine wasn't so good, but the starts aren't key to the race finishes this year.
“I did pretty much everything I could today – it was very intense racing between the three of us at the front. I was pushing to the limit, but there wasn't much more we could do to challenge for the victory. We're a strong unit though – a good team and we'll push on. We know what we need to do.”
Team boss Christian Horner agreed that third was ultimately the best the team could have hoped for from the race.
“We got Mark into the lead at the first pit-stop with the undercut, but unfortunately on the second stop the undercut didn't prove as powerful as we hoped and he dropped back to third,” he said. “We looked at going longer on the last stint, but ultimately P3 was as much as we could achieve at the end.” Source: Crash.net
Robert Kubica says he's a "bit disappointed" that Kimi Räikkönen won't be joining him at Renault, as it would've been really good to have a World Champ as a team-mate
Rumours of Räikkönen's possible move to Renault, which created headlines after the Finn's management admitted they had contacted Renault to enquire about their 2011 line-up, came to naught when the 2007 World Champ lashed out at Renault.
According to the World Rally Championship driver, he "never seriously considered driving for Renault" and was "very disappointed with the way they have used my name for their own marketing."
One man who was left disappointed by the Finn's rejection of Renault was his potential 2011 team-mate, Kubica.
"I was a bit surprised because personally I thought that there was a chance," the Pole told ITV-F1. "But apparently it wasn't the case - what he's saying is completely different to what the picture was looking like.
"So I'm a bit disappointed because if there had been a chance I would've been very pleased to race together in the team with him, because he is a great driver.
"To have a World Champion driver as a team-mate would always be really good, and I think it's what Renault needs as well. But apparently it was completely not the case, so I don't really know what to think." Source: Planet-F1
