Indian Grand Prix – Results: 7th

Source: autosport.com | lotusf1team.com | twitter

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A hard fought double points finish for Lotus F1 Team in today’s Indian Grand Prix, as Kimi and Romain battled their way to P7 / P9 respectively at the Buddh International Circuit.

Summary

• Warm, dry and hazy conditions surrounded the Buddh International Circuit throughout proceedings
• Kimi started the race on the same set of yellow marked soft compound Pirelli tyres used during Q3, Romain in P11 took the option of fitting fresh silver marked hard rubber
• The team opted for a one stop strategy with both drivers; Kimi switching from soft to hard tyres with Romain doing the opposite
• Romain’s pit stop was one of the fastest of the season for the team at under 3 seconds

Kimi Räikkönen, E20-05

Grid: P7
Race: P7
Fastest Lap: 1:29.354 [Lap 54]
Pit Stops: 1 [Lap 27]

Key Moments:
Lap 01: Tense opening lap dice with Sergio Perez; maintains P7 starting slot
Lap 21: Closes right up on MAS after laps of chasing; feigns a pass into T4 keeping the Ferrari on its toes
Lap 27: Pits for hard tyres; emerges in good clean air to attempt the undercut on MAS
Lap 29: Superb driving to pass MAS through the T2 / T3 complex as the Brazilian emerges from the pits, but DRS enables the Ferrari to retake the place into T4
Lap 60: Chequered flag; P7 for the Finn

Classified:

Pos  Driver        Team                       Time
 1.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault           1h31:10.744
 2.  Alonso        Ferrari                    +     9.437
 3.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault           +    13.217
 4.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes           +    13.909
 5.  Button        McLaren-Mercedes           +    26.266
 6.  Massa         Ferrari                    +    44.600
 7.  Raikkonen     Lotus-Renault              +    45.200
 8.  Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes       +    54.900
 9.  Grosjean      Lotus-Renault              +    56.100
10.  Senna         Williams-Renault           +  1:14.900
11.  Rosberg       Mercedes                   +  1:21.600
12.  Di Resta      Force India-Mercedes       +  1:22.800
13.  Ricciardo     Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +  1:26.000
14.  Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari             +  1:26.400
15.  Vergne        Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +     1 lap
16.  Maldonado     Williams-Renault           +     1 lap
17.  Petrov        Caterham-Renault           +     1 lap
18.  Kovalainen    Caterham-Renault           +     1 lap
19.  Pic           Marussia-Cosworth          +     1 lap
20.  Glock         Marussia-Cosworth          +    2 laps
21.  Karthikeyan   HRT-Cosworth               +    2 laps
22.  Schumacher    Mercedes                   +    5 laps

Fastest lap: Button, 1:28.203

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                         On lap
De la Rosa    HRT-Cosworth                 41
Perez         Sauber-Ferrari               21

World Championship standings, round 17:                

Drivers:                    Constructors:             
 1.  Vettel       240        1.  Red Bull-Renault          407
 2.  Alonso       227        2.  Ferrari                   316
 3.  Raikkonen    173        3.  McLaren-Mercedes          306
 4.  Webber       167        4.  Lotus-Renault             263
 5.  Hamilton     165        5.  Mercedes                  136
 6.  Button       141        6.  Sauber-Ferrari            116
 7.  Rosberg       93        7.  Force India-Mercedes       93
 8.  Grosjean      90        8.  Williams-Renault           59
 9.  Massa         89        9.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari         21
10.  Perez         66       
11.  Kobayashi     50       
12.  Hulkenberg    49       
13.  Di Resta      44       
14.  Schumacher    43       
15.  Maldonado     33       
16.  Senna         26       
17.  Vergne        12       
18.  Ricciardo      9

Video – Sky Sports interview Kimi:

 

Quotes:

Raikkonen blames Saturday error: “I really thought that we had a car this weekend that we would be able to fight for a podium with and I am very sure that we had,” he said. “But the mistake we made yesterday took all those chances out.”

Lotus team quotes:

Kimi Raikkonen – 7th: “I had a very good car today but I just couldn’t do anything with it as I was not able to pass on the straight. It was quite disappointing but that’s how it goes. We put ourselves in that position yesterday with the set-up we chose for qualifying and we paid the price today. We had the speed but not in the right place and when you are behind someone there’s not much you can do. Hopefully in the next race we can be a bit more smart and use our race speed to take some more Championship points.”

Romain Grosjean – 9th: “Finishing 9th after starting from 12th is good but we could have done even better. That said, I think it was a very good race from myself, my engineers, and the crew during the pit stops. We did everything we could; everybody was working at 100% but today we were lacking some speed in a straight line which makes it impossible to overtake. I pushed on every lap – it was like 90 minutes of qualifying – and gave everything to get the best performance from the car, so I’m very happy.”

Eric Boullier, Team Principal: “Like every race, qualifying is obviously the key to get good points so yesterday’s performance defined our race. Unfortunately Kimi was unable to overtake Felipe and stayed stuck behind. I think we had the pace to be a little bit better and get nearer the front. We clearly need to work on qualifying and make sure we do a better job. We know our car is strong in the race and I think both drivers today did the job we were expecting. The team did a great job on the pit stop strategy so we cannot complain. Let’s just say we’re frustrated that we didn’t do a little bit better.”

Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: “Both drivers reported that their cars were excellent during the race, which was good. The downside was that Kimi spent the whole race looking at the back of Massa’s car and Romain was held up for around four laps whilst Michael (Schumacher) received blue flags ahead of him. This circuit is pretty difficult to overtake on; even though there’s a very long straight, the DRS zone isn’t actually that long. It was clear we were definitely faster than the cars ahead, just not sufficiently faster to overtake.”