Friday: the Lotus already seems competitive
Kimi Räikkönen and Romain Grosjean are satisfied with today's tests. They were able to try both types of tires for the race, and Grosjean even believes that the Lotus E20 should be competitive this weekend, as it seems better than a week ago at the Chinese Grand Prix.
Kimi Räikkönen – 9th and 13th
« The Soft tires seem better today, but we still need to decide which tire will work best during a stint. It is too early to draw conclusions, and we need to study the collected data. For now, it seems there won’t be a significant difference (between the Softs and the Mediums).
The track conditions were very good right away surprisingly, and there didn’t seem to be a big difference during the second session. Let’s hope the wind doesn’t pick up tonight to bring sand onto the track. Tire degradation should be interesting. There are things you can do as a driver to reduce it, but the majority is done through the car’s setup. I hope we find a good solution.
Romain Grosjean – 10th and 9th
This season, we have moved from rather cool temperatures in Australia to hot weather in Malaysia, then to quite cool temperatures in China and again to high heat here in Bahrain. This variation makes setting up the car challenging for the team, as you are working in different conditions, and you still spend all your practice sessions trying to adjust things.
We now have a much better idea of the behavior of the single-seater and hope that this will allow us to perform well tomorrow during the qualifiers. I think we can be pleased with our day’s work: we completed the scheduled program and covered a good number of laps.
We have made great strides forward from our position last week in China: I am confident in the long runs and tomorrow, we will push hard to have a good pace over one lap as well.
