Saturday: Räikkönen expects better and Grosjean pays for his strategy at Lotus
While it could have been relatively promising, Lotus's qualifying session is mixed: while Kimi Räikkönen, still struggling with understeering issues, can be content with 6th place, Romain Grosjean missed the strategy that had worked for him in recent races and will start far back on the grid.
Kimi Räikkönen – 11th and 6th:
« It wasn’t an ideal qualifying and I still have some issues with understeer, but the car was generally better than yesterday. The tires need to be managed throughout the lap for qualifying, so we are where we are on the grid. We’ll see what happens tomorrow and I’ll try to do the best I can. Overall, the car seems slightly better than in the last races; still not where we want it to be, but slightly better. »
Romain Grosjean – 5th and 17th:
« We struggled again today trying to do just one stint with the mediums in Q1, and even though it had been a successful tactic for us recently, it didn’t pay off this time. The times were tighter than expected and ultimately, we miscalculated on the minimum time. It’s easy to look back and think about what was done, but we made the decision together and unfortunately, in the end, it was the wrong one. It’s tough to overtake here, so it’s going to be a long race from 17th place on the grid. We’re going to have to come up with something special strategy-wise to try and salvage something, but obviously, we’ll analyze the options tonight to see what’s possible. Of course, we won’t be at the front after the first corner this time, but we’ll do our best. »
