Australian Grand Prix – Friday Practice Results, Photos

Source: autosport.com | quotes: formula1.com, lotusf1team.com | Lotus updates on Twitter |

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Kimi Raikkonen: “We didn’t really learn much from today due to the weather, but it’s the same for everyone. We tried a different steering rack in the first session. It would have been fine to run, but we knew that the base system would be better. The setup we have now is working well, it may take a while before we get it perfect but we’ll make the best of it. Hopefully the weather will be better tomorrow and we’ll be happier after qualifying. I didn’t push too hard today; if it’s dry tomorrow we’ll have a better idea of what we need to do.”

Alan Permane, Lotus trackside operations director: “We completed limited running due to the inclement weather; you learn little on a wet track and our forecast suggests dry days tomorrow and Sunday. We ran with Pirelli’s full allocation of tyre types for this event; medium and soft dry tyres, and intermediate and wet tyres. We changed the steering rack on Kimi’s car and the rear suspension set-up on Romain’s car during the first session. The E20 worked well on high fuel loads in the dry conditions at the end of FP2. We have a solid baseline wet set-up.”

James Allison, Lotus technical director: “It was a day dominated by the weather. At this time of year your cupboards are not overflowing with spare parts so it would be foolhardy to risk damaging anything unnecessarily. The rest of the weekend is predicted to be dry, so discretion was the better part of valour. This meant we stayed in the box for most of the day. When it did look sensible to venture out on track we did so with both drivers and the E20 looked solid in the second session with a high fuel load. We have a baseline steering set-up for Kimi which works, but we tried a different option at the start of FP1. He wasn’t convinced by it so we went back to our baseline. As the conditions were not conducive to running we didn’t miss an undue amount of track time. Romain’s rear suspension set-up was not working as it should in the first session. We were able to rectify it for the second, and he was immediately happy with the car.”

Free practice 2:

With rain dominating the second practice session at Albert Park this afternoon, the opening day of the Australian Grand Prix proved to be useful if not spectacular for Lotus F1 Team.

The team completed limited running today due to the inclement weather conditions. With forecasts suggesting that both Saturday and Sunday will be dry, there was little to be gained and potentially a lot to be lost by running on a wet track, and so it was decided that discretion was the better part of valour on this occasion.

The session was not a complete waste however, as in the narrow window of dry running time the team used each of the allocated Pirelli tyre compounds allocated for this event; medium / soft dry tyres, and intermediate / full wet tyres.

The combination of wet and dry running also showed positive results in a number of key areas, demonstrating that the E20 has a solid baseline wet set-up, and works well on high fuel loads in dry conditions.

The standings at the end of the session placed Romain in P14 with a best lap of 1:32.822 from his 11 attempts, while Kimi ended the day in P18 with a best lap of 1:34.275 from just 7 attempts.

Despite a stop-start opening day here in Melbourne, the atmosphere in the garage is decidedly optimistic as the team heads into the first real test of the season tomorrow afternoon, when the qualifying sessions will reveal the true running order at this early stage of the season.

Pos--Driver---------------Team--------------------Time---------------Laps
 1.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes                1m29.183s            16
 2.  Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes    1m29.292s  +  0.109  19
 3.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari          1m30.199s  +  1.016  23
 4.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari                 1m30.341s  +  1.158  13
 5.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari          1m30.709s  +  1.526  14
 6.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes    1m31.466s  +  2.283  13
 7.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari                 1m31.505s  +  2.322  14
 8.  Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault        1m31.932s  +  2.749  16
 9.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes                1m32.184s  +  3.001  17
10.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault        1m32.194s  +  3.011  19
11.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault        1m32.296s  +  3.113  20
12.  Timo Glock            Marussia-Cosworth       1m32.632s  +  3.449  17
13.  Vitaly Petrov         Caterham-Renault        1m32.767s  +  3.584  15
14.  Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault           1m32.822s  +  3.639  11
15.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes        1m33.039s  +  3.856  18
16.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes        1m33.252s  +  4.069  11
17.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault        1m34.108s  +  4.925  21
18.  Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault           1m34.275s  + 5.092   7
19.  Bruno Senna           Williams-Renault        1m34.312s  +  5.129  17
20.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1m34.485s  +  5.302  29
21.  Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1m34.604s  +  5.421  31
22.  Charles Pic           Marussia-Cosworth       1m34.770s  +  5.587  13
23.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth            1m42.627s  +  13.444 16
24.  Pedro de la Rosa      HRT-Cosworth                                  1

Free practice 1:

With the install lap and various related tests completed, the drivers jumped out for a brief break before their first full runs. Unfortunately for Kimi the break proved to be slightly more elongated than originally planned, as the mechanics sprung into action to investigate an issue with the steering.

While things ran more smoothly for Romain, the mixed track conditions did not provide an ideal scenario for the Frenchman to get to grips with the Albert Park circuit – a venue he had yet to experience in his racing career to date.

Nevertheless, Romain got his head down and completed 16 laps, with a best time of 1:30.515 putting him in 16th place.

The steering issue now resolved there was just enough time for Kimi to complete one short run before the chequered flag dropped. His best time, a 1:29.565 set on his last flying lap, proved good enough for 9th place despite the Finn notching up just 8 laps.

 Pos-Driver---------------Team------------------Time----------------Laps
 1.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes       1m27.560s            11
 2.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes       1m27.805s  + 0.245   14
 3.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes               1m28.235s  + 0.675   17
 4.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari                1m28.360s  + 0.800   21
 5.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault       1m28.467s  + 0.907   21
 6.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes               1m28.683s  + 1.123   22
 7.  Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m28.908s  + 1.348   23
 8.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault       1m29.415s  + 1.855   16
 9.  Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault          1m29.565s  + 2.005    8
10.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari         1m29.722s  + 2.162   26
11.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault       1m29.790s  + 2.230   21
12.  Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes   1m29.865s  + 2.305   17
13.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes   1m29.881s  + 2.321   18
14.  Bruno Senna           Williams-Renault       1m29.953s  + 2.393   21
15.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari         1m30.124s  + 2.564   22
16.  Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault          1m30.515s  + 2.955   16
17.  Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault       1m30.586s  + 3.026   16
18.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari                1m30.743s  + 3.183   11
19.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m31.178s  + 3.618   17
20.  Vitaly Petrov         Caterham-Renault       1m31.983s  + 4.423    8
21.  Timo Glock            Marussia-Cosworth      1m34.730s  + 7.170    8
22.  Charles Pic           Marussia-Cosworth      1m40.256s  + 12.696  11
23.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth           no time               3
24.  Pedro de la Rosa      HRT-Cosworth           no time               0

Videos:

So what exactly is going on with Kimi’s steering with the Lotus?

Onboard with Kimi: