Mixed feelings for Lotus drivers after qualifying
A tightly fought qualifying session at the Yas Marina Circuit saw Kimi Räikkönen net a fine fifth position on the grid whilst Romain Grosjean took tenth for tomorrow's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Obviously this creates a great opportunity for a double points finish tomorrow.
Kimi Räikkönen, E20-05:
Q : P5, 1:41.260
FP3 : P9, 1:43.184
"Qualifying was good. The car hasn't felt fantastic all weekend but we decided we weren't going to change the car's set-up from where it was for the last race. It was the right choice because in the end the circuit came to us in qualifying where the car was the best it has been so far here. We'll give tomorrow our best shot ; Let's see if we can make a good start to get right behind the Red Bulls, and then we'll see what happens after that."
Romain Grosjean, E20-03:
Q : P10, 1:41.778
FP3 : P6, 1:43.015
"It wasn't a great qualifying lap for me today, and P10 is not where we want to be on the grid. In the last run in Q3 I had no grip so wasn't able to find more pace. The car had felt fine before that and we looked good through the other qualifying sessions. It just means I have some more work to do in the race and I think there's more to come from me and the car."
Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director :
"We are happy with our achievements today, however we could have possibly managed even more with both drivers. Fifth on the grid is very good for Kimi and means we should be well placed for tomorrow. Romain was looking set for a strong lap too, matching Kimi for the first two sectors, but he lost half a second on the final sector ; we'll be looking at what went wrong there."
"As has been the trend this season, we're confident in terms of where our race pace should be relative to our opposition. We completed a promising long run on Friday afternoon ; we have no problems or issues with tyre wear, warm-up, or anything like that so there are no reasons why we should not have a good evening tomorrow."
