Lotus pleased with results from Barcelona

FORMULA ONE – SPANISH GRAND PRIX

Kimi Raikkonen bagged his second podium on the trot in Barcelona, charging hard to finish third behind first time grand prix winner Pastor Maldonado and, by just half a second, Fernando Alonso.

The Finn was disappointed not to finish on the top step, though, claiming that the Lotus E20 had the potential to have won every race this year so far. Nevertheless, he is now fourth in the Drivers’ Championship, just 12 points behind leaders Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso.

Starting on the second row behind team-mate Romain Grosjean, he passed the Frenchman at the start. He held third till the second round of stops, and when Alonso pitted from the lead on Lap 45 the Iceman enjoyed two laps at the front, before being passed by the resurgent Maldonado. Struggling with degradation, he was soon holding up Alonso before pitting for late rubber on Lap 49 and then setting off on a final sprint on fresh rubber. As the laps counted down he slashed the gap to Alonso by a couple of seconds a lap while the Spaniard struggled with grip. He entered the final of 66 laps 2.3 seconds behind the Ferrari and screamed across the line just 0.6 adrift.

Romain took the chequered flag just ten seconds behind his team-mate, securing fourth place. He had lost several positions at the start, and lost a bit of front wing to Bruno Senna which didn’t help matters, but he recovered to score 12 points.

Currently sitting third, Lotus F1 now moves within 14 points of McLaren and 25 behind leaders Red Bull Racing in the Constructors Championship.

Kimi Raikkonen: “I had a good start, but I hit the rev limiter and couldn’t take the other two, and then we fell back too far in the middle stint. By pitting late the third time I had a lot of speed for the finish and, given one more lap, I probably could have overtaken Fernando, but that’s easy to say afterwards.”

Romain Grosjean: “Both cars finishing strongly in the points is great for the team. It was pretty difficult for me at the start of the race as it was hard to get the front working properly with the wing damaged, but we made some changes and at the end of the race the car was really flying.”

Source [Lotus]

 

Lotus really has put on a tremendous show this season. It was nice to see both cars actually cross the finish line, not to mention in 3rd and 4th places. The car seems to have come a long way from last season and having some great drivers on the team is really working out much better than I had expected.