Friday: Lotus can do better
Lotus is slightly behind this Friday but the drivers of the English team are not overly concerned. The E20 is performing well and there is room to improve performance, not to mention that the track itself will improve throughout the weekend.
Kimi Räikkönen – 14th and 11th:
« It’s a great circuit; the sectors are quite different so there is a real challenge. Obviously, as with any new circuit, there was no grip at the beginning of the day which didn’t give us a very good feeling, but as the grip improved it became more fun to drive. This morning was very slippery, this afternoon less so, but you still couldn’t really attack and it’s a bit tricky to find the limit. There are many improvements to come – from the track and our settings – so qualifying will be interesting. »
Romain Grosjean – 15th and 13th:
« The most obvious thing about the track at this moment is the lack of grip; it’s really very slippery. The layout itself seems very good but there’s still a long way to go to be able to push everywhere at the limit, particularly in turns 7-9 and at the end at turn 19 where it’s very hard to predict how the car will behave. The positive point is that the car seems good on long stints with the hard tires so we have a good starting point but there’s still a lot of work with the mediums. We still have tomorrow morning and I think the track will continue to improve until the end of the weekend so qualifying will be interesting, that’s for sure. »
