Saturday in Canada: “Not what we want” | Grid penalty

| Source: lotusf1team.com |

 

It’s been a tough weekend for the Iceman, who heads into tomorrow’s Canadian Grand Prix seeking a change in both fortunes and the skies…

Q: How was your qualifying session?

KR: We didn’t have grip in these conditions so we did pretty much all we could do, but if there’s no grip you can’t go faster. In this weather it’s difficult as sometimes the rain gets harder and sometimes the track is drying, so you have to try to be out there when the circuit’s at its best. P9 on the grid is not what we want so we’ll have to see what we can do in the race tomorrow.

Q: Was getting tyre temperature the reason for the struggle for pace?

KR: This kind of weather doesn’t seem to be that good for us. We don’t seem to be able to get the tyres working as well as we should be which makes it very difficult to get a quick lap out of the car.

Q: Do you think there are better prospects for the race?

KR: We’ll have to see how the weather is. Some forecasts say it’s going to be dry, some say that it’s going to be wet. If it’s dry, we’ll have a better opportunity and we’ll see what we can do. If the weather’s like it is today then it’ll be a harder race for us, but you never know what could happen.

Q: How does the car feel in the dry?

KR: It was okay, not too bad. This morning we only had a few laps on the dry tyres and it was better than yesterday for sure. It’s hard to say how it will be with a full fuel load but hopefully we’ll be a bit stronger than the opposition. I’m sure the car will be much better if it’s dry than it was today in the wet.

Q: Any further predictions?

KR: It’s probably not going to be one of our strongest weekends, but we’ll do the best we can.

Raikkonen and Ricciardo given two-place grid penalties

Kimi Raikkonen and Daniel Ricciardo have been give two-place grid penalties for not lining up correctly at the pit exit when Q2 restarted in Montreal.

Canadian Grand Prix qualifying had been red-flagged due to Felipe Massa’s crash at Turn 3, and as the session resumed with less than two minutes to go, all 15 remaining drivers queued at the pit exit.

But several chose to spread out rather than sticking in line, and after the sessions the stewards summoned Raikkonen, Ricciardo, Jean-Eric Vergne, Sergio Perez and Pastor Maldonado over the incident.

Only Raikkonen and Ricciardo were penalised for not starting from the designated ‘fast lane’.

Both will lose two places on the grid, dropping the Lotus and Toro Rosso from ninth and 10th to 11th and 12th.

Raikkonen had been investigated over a similar potential transgression in Q3, but was not given any penalty for that instance.

His team-mate Romain Grosjean, who only qualified 19th, is already carrying a 10-place penalty for crashing into Ricciardo in Monaco.

Revised grid:

 1. Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault
 2. Lewis Hamilton        Mercedes
 3. Valtteri Bottas       Williams-Renault
 4. Nico Rosberg          Mercedes
 5. Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault
 6. Fernando Alonso       Ferrari
 7. Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari
 8. Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes
 9. Nico Hulkenberg       Sauber-Ferrari
10. Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault
11. Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari
12. Sergio Perez          McLaren-Mercedes
13. Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault
14. Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes
15. Esteban Gutierrez     Sauber-Ferrari
16. Felipe Massa          Ferrari
17. Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes
18. Charles Pic           Caterham-Renault
19. Jules Bianchi         Marussia-Cosworth
20. Max Chilton           Marussia-Cosworth
21. Giedo van der Garde   Caterham-Renault
22. Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault