Source: autosport.com | lotusf1team.com | twitter
Mixed conditions, an on-track incident for Romain and lack of track time for Kimi lead to a disappointing afternoon at Interlagos with P9/P18 on tomorrow’s grid the result.
Summary
- A light shower before Q1 meant a wet start to the session; the track rapidly drying to allow dry running for the majority of proceedings
- Romain’s car incurred damage in a collision with Pedro de la Rosa at T14 bringing his session; a hasty nose change was not enough to see him out of Q1
- Kimi progressed relatively safely through Q1, easily through Q2 and struggled in Q3 having used an extra set of mediums early in proceedings
Kimi Räikkönen, E20-05
Position: Q1 – P13 / Q2 – P5 / Q3 – P9
Best Time: Q1 – 1:16.432 / Q2 – 1:13.698 / Q3 – 1:13.298
Laps Completed: Q1 – 9 / Q2 – 10 / Q3 – 3
Key Moments:
Q1 – 10mins: Fresh medium tyres for an install run; track now dry enough for slick rubber
Q1 – 14mins: Opening attempt on scrubbed mediums some way off the pace; feeling his way onto the green track after missing out on FP3
Q1 – 17mins: Second stint on medium rubber again; personal best sectors to move into the top 10
Q1 – 20mins: Session ends; safely progresses in P13
Q2 – 00mins: Straight out for a first run on scrubbed mediums; just outside the top 10 in the early stages
Q2 – 08mins: New mediums for a second and final stint; immediately improves to clinch P3 with a handful of minutes remaining
Q2 – 15mins: Session ends; comfortably into the final stage in P5
Q3 – 06mins: Emerges for a single stint on fresh medium rubber
Q3 – 08mins: Goes P6 with a single attempt; looking to save tyres for the race as the final contenders cross the line
Q3 – 10mins: Chequered flag; P9 for the Finn as the grid shuffles down
Kimi will move up the grid into P8 as Maldonado handed 10-place grid penalty
Pos Driver Team Time Gap 1. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m12.458s 2. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m12.513s + 0.055 3. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m12.581s + 0.123 4. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m12.760s + 0.302 5. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m12.987s + 0.529 6. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 1m13.174s + 0.716 7. Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1m13.206s + 0.748 8. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m13.253s + 0.795 9. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault 1m13.298s + 0.840 10. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m13.489s + 1.031 Q2 cut-off time: 1m14.048s Gap ** 11. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m14.121s + 0.912 12. Bruno Senna Williams-Renault 1m14.219s + 1.010 13. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1m14.234s + 1.025 14. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m14.334s + 1.125 15. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1m14.380s + 1.171 16. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m14.574s + 1.365 17. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m14.619s + 1.410 Q1 cut-off time: 1m16.744s Gap * 18. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1m16.967s + 1.892 19. Vitaly Petrov Caterham-Renault 1m17.073s + 1.998 20. Heikki Kovalainen Caterham-Renault 1m17.086s + 2.011 21. Timo Glock Marussia-Cosworth 1m17.508s + 2.433 22. Charles Pic Marussia-Cosworth 1m18.104s + 3.029 23. Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1m19.576s + 4.501 24. Pedro de la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 1m19.699s + 4.624
“We didn’t get a single lap this morning and yesterday we didn’t really get anything done, so the car was pretty bad,” Raikkonen replied when asked by AUTOSPORT how the practice problems had affected his qualifying form. “We just had to change it a lot since yesterday and it was purely guessing for qualifying because we hadn’t done many laps. In that way, it was fine, but with some running this morning we could have done some proper set-up work.” Raikkonen said Lotus was not among the teams to gamble on a wet set-up for the race. “No, we just did something that we hope works because we had no running,” he said. “The car wasn’t very good. At least we got something out of qualifying.”
Kimi Raikkonen – 9th: Of course we expect to do better but it’s been a tricky weekend. If I could have just done a few laps this morning it would have made things much easier, but after the engine problem I couldn’t complete any running and with the different temperatures from yesterday it was hard to know what would be the best setup. So I guess it was good to get into Q3 after all the issues; it means we got something out of today when it could have been even worse.
Romain Grosjean – 18th: Unfortunately there’s not much to say. I stayed behind Pedro [de la Rosa] during his flying lap to not disturb his time, but then when we got to the straight I tried to get past and he just didn’t see me. I braked as much as I could but it was too late; he moved across, there was contact which broke my front wing and that was my afternoon ruined. To be honest I’m pretty upset about it; of course, every driver is out there fighting for position but pulling that kind of move when the car behind is clearly faster is just pointless. The car felt very good this morning and we should have been fighting for the top five not struggling to get into Q2. There’s a lot of work to do now to get close to where we should be, but we know the pace is there so hopefully we can still bring home some good points.
KIMI RÄIKKÖNEN SPACE 