USA Grand Prix – Race Results: 6th

Source: autosport.com | lotusf1team.com | twitter

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Summary

• Kimi and Romain started the race on scrubbed sets of white marked medium compound Pirelli tyres
• Romain gained a place on the grid thanks to a penalty for Felipe Massa
• Both drivers made a single pit stop to switch from medium to hard rubber; Romain stopping very early but making his rubber last well for an impressive 47 laps
• Yellow flags emerged on Lap 16 as VER parked his Toro Rosso at T7; otherwise an incident-free race

Kimi Räikkönen, E20-05

Grid: P4
Race: P6
Fastest Lap: 1:39.474 [Lap 56]
Pit Stops: 1 [Lap 24]

Key Moments:
Lap 01: Slow start; loses out to MSC and ALO, then run wide by HUL through T2 dropping another position
Lap 02: Surges down the inside of MSC into T11, only to lose the place back [and an additional spot to GRO] at the end of the long straight into T12
Lap 13: Daring move around the outside of HUL through T2; pulls it off superbly to clinch P5
Lap 17: Moves up to P4 as WEB retires with mechanical issues
Lap 24: Pits for hard tyres; slow stop costs an opportunity to jump ALO
Lap 28: Regains position from MAS into T1 having been jumped by the Brazilian in the stops
Lap 40: Drops a place to MAS at T1
Lap 46: Same move, different car as BUT dives through
Lap 56: Chequered flag; P6 for the Finn

Pos  Driver        Team                       Time
 1.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes           1h35:55.269
 2.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault           +     0.600
 3.  Alonso        Ferrari                    +    39.200
 4.  Massa         Ferrari                    +    46.000
 5.  Button        McLaren-Mercedes           +    56.400
 6.  Raikkonen     Lotus-Renault              +  1:04.400
 7.  Grosjean      Lotus-Renault              +  1:10.300
 8.  Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes       +  1:13.700
 9.  Maldonado     Williams-Renault           +  1:14.500
10.  Senna         Williams-Renault           +  1:15.100
11.  Perez         Sauber-Ferrari             +  1:24.300
12.  Ricciardo     Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +  1:24.800
13.  Rosberg       Mercedes                   +  1:25.500
14.  Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari             +     1 lap
15.  Di Resta      Force India-Mercedes       +     1 lap
16.  Schumacher    Mercedes                   +     1 lap
17.  Petrov        Caterham-Renault           +     1 lap
18.  Kovalainen    Caterham-Renault           +     1 lap
19.  Glock         Marussia-Cosworth          +     1 lap
20.  Pic           Marussia-Cosworth          +    2 laps
21.  De la Rosa    HRT-Cosworth               +    2 laps
22.  Karthikeyan   HRT-Cosworth               +    2 laps

Fastest lap: Vettel, 1:39.347

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                         On lap
Webber        Red Bull-Renault             17
Vergne        Toro Rosso-Ferrari           15

World Championship standings, round 19:                

Drivers:                    Constructors:             
 1.  Vettel       273        1.  Red Bull-Renault          440
 2.  Alonso       260        2.  Ferrari                   367
 3.  Raikkonen    206        3.  McLaren-Mercedes          353
 4.  Hamilton     190        4.  Lotus-Renault             302
 5.  Webber       167        5.  Mercedes                  136
 6.  Button       163        6.  Sauber-Ferrari            124
 7.  Massa        107        7.  Force India-Mercedes       99
 8.  Grosjean      96        8.  Williams-Renault           76
 9.  Rosberg       93        9.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari         22
10.  Perez         66       
11.  Kobayashi     58       
12.  Hulkenberg    53       
13.  Di Resta      46       
14.  Maldonado     45       
15.  Schumacher    43       
16.  Senna         31       
17.  Vergne        12       
18.  Ricciardo     10

Video: Raikkonen overtakes Hulkenberg, post-race interview

 

Lotus team quotes:

Kimi Raikkonen – 6th: “It was an okay day, but not a very easy one for us. I got a bad start and then I touched with a Force India at the second corner so I lost a few more places. After that the car was okay and I could get past some of the others. Unfortunately, when it got cloudy it got too cold so the tyres stopped working and that’s where we saw Jenson [Button] get past. Basically, it was a race where we were just depending on the tyres to be in their window. I’m still 3rd in the championship and we’ll do everything we can to maintain this position until the end.”

Eric Boullier, Team Principal: “Today wasn’t as good as Abu Dhabi obviously, but with both cars in the points we’re quite satisfied. The first part of the race created some expectations that we could have been in a position to fight for a better result, however the race didn’t play out that way. We had a small problem in Kimi’s pit stop and lost time there. Romain made a mistake behind Nico Hulkenberg and lost the opportunity to do a better job, but he had a very strong race from there and came back well. In the end, Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari were faster and there wasn’t anything we could do. It’s good to gain some points, plus we know we have better performance still to come from the car and the ability to achieve better results, so we’re looking forward to Brazil.”

James Allison, Technical Director: “Although there were elements of today’s race that were quite positive, overall I have to admit it was a pretty joyless experience. Romain’s off-track excursion during the early stages put a sizeable flat spot on his tyres which proved to be too much to live with past a few extra laps. This was a real shame as he clearly had good pace and put in a very spirited drive to recover from there. After a tricky start from the dirty side of the track, Kimi did a good job of clawing his way forwards and was on course to jump Fernando [Alonso] in the pit stop battle, but unfortunately we had a bit of a drama with our tyre change which put paid to that. On a more positive note, our qualifying pace has certainly improved so with a trouble free race in Brazil we can hopefully wrap up the season with another podium.”