Sunday: Lotus couldn’t compete with Red Bull and Ferrari
Finished fifth at the 2012 Korean Grand Prix, Kimi Räikkönen believes he could not have caught either the Red Bulls or the Ferraris, and thinks it will now be difficult for him to contend for the title. Romain Grosjean, on the other hand, is happy to have completed a clean race, even though he lost the duel against Nico Hülkenberg.
Kimi Räikkönen – 5th:
« I believe this is about where we should be today. The yellow flags at the beginning didn’t help me when I was fighting with Felipe [Massa]. But anyway, I was not fast enough to keep up with the Red Bull and Ferrari cars. I lost quite a bit of time behind Lewis [Hamilton], mainly because the new exhaust system causes a slight loss of power, making it difficult to overtake. But with a few more tests, I’m sure we’ll learn more and can make progress on that. Towards the end, I found myself a bit isolated, but I had to keep pushing to maintain my position, and it wasn’t that easy. The gap with Sebastian [Vettel] is now significant, and it will be tough to catch up, but we will try until the end. »
Romain Grosjean – 7th:
« Obviously, I was a bit nervous at the start. But we made a big effort this week to understand certain things, and it certainly helped. The start wasn’t the easiest, and I avoided risky actions. But then, it went quite normally. I struggled a bit with the last set of tires, which started graining from the beginning. Also, my last stint wasn’t very strong. I might have finished a position higher—I think I now know all the details of the Force India after spending so much time fighting with Nico [Hülkenberg]—but I’m happy to have crossed the finish line after a clean race. »
From the press release published by the Lotus F1 Team
