Spain Grand Prix – Race Results: P2

| Source: autosport.com | lotusf1team.com |

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A strong drive to P2 puts Kimi just 4 points off Championship leader Sebastian Vettel, whilst bad luck sees Romain retire in the early stages at the Circuit de Catalunya…

Pos  Driver        Team 
 1.  Alonso         Ferrari
 2.  Raikkonen      Lotus-Renault
 3.  Massa          Ferrari
 4.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault
 5.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault
 6.  Rosberg        Mercedes
 7.  Di Resta       Force India-Mercedes
 8.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes
 9.  Perez          McLaren-Mercedes
10.  Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari
11.  Gutierrez      Sauber-Ferrari
12.  Hamilton       Mercedes
13.  Sutil          Force India-Mercedes
14.  Maldonado      Williams-Renault
15.  Hulkenberg     Sauber-Ferrari
16.  Bottas         Williams-Renault
17.  Pic            Caterham-Renault
18.  Bianchi        Marussia-Cosworth
19.  Chilton        Marussia-Cosworth
DNF  Vergne         Toro Rosso-Ferrari
DNF  van der Garde  Caterham-Renault
DNF  Grosjean       Lotus-Renault

World Championship standings, round 5:                

Drivers:                    Constructors:             
 1.  Vettel         89        1.  Red Bull-Renault          131
 2.  Raikkonen      85        2.  Ferrari                   117
 3.  Alonso         72        3.  Lotus-Renault             111
 4.  Hamilton       50        4.  Mercedes                   72
 5.  Massa          45        5.  Force India-Mercedes       32
 6.  Webber         42        6.  McLaren-Mercedes           29
 7.  Di Resta       26        7.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari          8
 8.  Grosjean       26        8.  Sauber-Ferrari              5
 9.  Rosberg        22       
10.  Button         17       
11.  Perez          12       
12.  Ricciardo       7       
13.  Sutil           6       
14.  Hulkenberg      5       
15.  Vergne          1

Video: SkySports interview

 

Sunday Quotes:

Raikkonen – No point fighting Alonso

When asked if he thought that victory had been possible, Lotus driver Raikkonen replied: “Maybe halfway through, when we were leading, but we were on old tyres and [he had] newer tyres.

“It is too easy to overtake, so no point to really fight again because you cannot hold him behind.

“I knew if I could somehow stay a bit closer, maybe I had some chance, even if I am already behind them with old tyres. But in the end, they were just too fast.”

Raikkonen pointed to his poor opening lap, when he dropped a place to Alonso at Turn 3, as a moment that shaped his race.

“We didn’t have a good start, but I don’t think the end result was decided there. It wasn’t the win, and we are only happy with the win, but [in terms of the championship, with Sebastian] Vettel we are close and Fernando has caught me, but we are still in the hunt and hopefully we can try and win a bit more.”

Raikkonen is now just four points behind Vettel in the championship, and is looking forward to future battles as he aims to win his second world title.

“Sometimes you have bad days and make the most out of them and give yourself a chance to fight for wins,” he said.

“If you can do that often you will have a good chance in the end to fight for the championship. Only five races done… we will see what happens and see where we are at the end.”

Lotus Team Quotes:

Kimi Raikkonen – 2nd: “Unfortunately it’s second place again so it’s not time to celebrate too much. The car felt good and we did pretty much all we could today, but we didn’t have the pace to challenge Fernando [Alonso]. I drove to the maximum and it’s good for the championship that Sebastian finished behind us. It’s nice to be on the podium for me and the team; let’s see what we can do in Monaco.”

Romain Grosjean – DNF: “I made a poor start but after that I was on the pace and we know we’re able to produce good race strategies, so there was potential for a strong result today. The car was feeling pretty good until we had an issue with the rear suspension which meant I had to return to the pits and retire from the race, which is a great shame. It’s always disappointing for everyone when something like this happens but there’s no-one to blame; it’s just a part of motor racing.”

Eric Boullier, Team Principal: “We’re very happy with a podium. Losing out to Fernando in the first corner was a blow, and being held up behind first Lewis [Hamilton] then Sebastian certainly hampered our progress, but even so I don’t think we quite had the pace to take the win today. Unfortunately for Romain, and through no fault of his own, a rear suspension failure curtailed his race very early on. The cause of this has yet to be determined and we’ve completed many, many kilometres with this suspension configuration, so it’s difficult to pinpoint what might have occurred. We’ll be sending the parts back to Enstone to have a good look at what went wrong and avoid any recurrence.”

On Twitter:

@NickHeidfeld Congrats especially 2 @Kimi_Raikkonen on 2nd place + for apparently matching my consecutive race finish streak.He deserves it. #strongracer

@f1zone Kimi: “It’s only 5 races. We are here to win races and championships. I want to win, the team wants to win. 2nd is disappointing” #f1

@f1zone Kimi: “But we gained points on Sebastian today so it’s good. But we need to finish higher up more.”

@KimiFanPage Kimi: ”We choose to do that (three stops). It gave us second place. We gained points on Sebastian, something good came out of today.”