Canada Grand Prix – Race Results: P9

| Source: autosport.com | full report @ lotusf1team.com |

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Kimi Räikkönen equalled Michael Schumacher’s record of consecutive points finishes as he endured a difficult Canadian Grand Prix. Romain Grosjean fought through the field to temporarily occupy a points placing, before an unexpected second stop dropped him to 13th place from his back of the grid start in Montréal.

Kimi falls to third place in the Drivers’ Championship, with Fernando Alonso now in second, 12 points ahead of him. The team drops to fourth in the Constructors’ Championship, with Mercedes 20 points ahead in third.

Kimi started from P11 with a new set of supersoft tyres, changing to new mediums on lap 22. Romain started from P22 on a new set of medium tyres, switching to new supersofts on lap 42 and new mediums on lap 53.

Today was Kimi’s 35th consecutive race finish – 27th consecutive with Lotus F1 Team – and 24th consecutive Grand Prix points finish; the latter statistic meaning he equals Michael Schumacher’s record.

Pos  Driver        Team                       Time
 1.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault           1h32:09.143
 2.  Alonso         Ferrari                    +    14.408
 3.  Hamilton       Mercedes                   +    15.942
 4.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault           +    25.731
 5.  Rosberg        Mercedes                   +  1:09.725
 6.  Vergne         Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +     1 lap
 7.  Di Resta       Force India-Mercedes       +     1 lap
 8.  Massa          Ferrari                    +     1 lap
 9.  Raikkonen      Lotus-Renault              +     1 lap
10.  Sutil          Force India-Mercedes       +     1 lap
11.  Perez          McLaren-Mercedes           +     1 lap
12.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes           +     1 lap
13.  Grosjean       Lotus-Renault              +     1 lap
14.  Bottas         Williams-Renault           +     1 lap
15.  Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +    2 laps
16.  Maldonado      Williams-Renault           +    2 laps
17.  Bianchi        Marussia-Cosworth          +    2 laps
18.  Pic            Caterham-Renault           +    2 laps
19.  Chilton        Marussia-Cosworth          +    3 laps
20.  Gutierrez      Sauber-Ferrari             +    7 laps

Fastest lap: Webber, 1:16.182

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                         On lap
Hulkenberg     Sauber-Ferrari               46
van der Garde  Caterham-Renault             44

World Championship standings, round 7:                

Drivers:                    Constructors:             
 1.  Vettel        132        1.  Red Bull-Renault          201
 2.  Alonso         96        2.  Ferrari                   145
 3.  Raikkonen      88        3.  Mercedes                  134
 4.  Hamilton       77        4.  Lotus-Renault             114
 5.  Webber         69        5.  Force India-Mercedes       51
 6.  Rosberg        57        6.  McLaren-Mercedes           37
 7.  Massa          49        7.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari         20
 8.  Di Resta       34        8.  Sauber-Ferrari              5
 9.  Grosjean       26       
10.  Button         25       
11.  Sutil          17       
12.  Vergne         13       
13.  Perez          12       
14.  Ricciardo       7       
15.  Hulkenberg      5

Lotus Team Quotes:

Kimi Räikkönen: “My race didn’t start very well and then my brakes were fading with the pedal going soft; similar to the problem we had on Friday. It wasn’t ideal but at least the brakes were good enough to slow me down for the corners. Unfortunately though it meant I lost a lot of time and wasn’t able to attack, plus we lost a few seconds in the pit stop which obviously didn’t help either. Most of my race was just following the cars in front and defending from those behind, so not the most enjoyable day nor the most enjoyable result. It’s been a bad weekend, but at least we scored a few points.”

Romain Grosjean: “It was always going to be a tough race coming from the back, but it’s still disappointing to miss out on the points. Things were looking good until we switched to the option tyres, but they dropped off far quicker than we expected which forced us to stop again. Sadly that effectively put an end to our race as by that time there was no way back. After a promising start on Friday it’s not been the best weekend, but we had good pace last year at Silverstone so we’ll come back looking to put things right.”

Eric Boullier, Team Principal: “Today was certainly character building. On the plus side, Romain drove a measured and mature race through the field and should have finished in the points had we not had to make a second stop, which wasn’t to our original plan. Kimi had a frustrating day, but still scored some points. We couldn’t show the pace we wanted this weekend and will be all the more focused when we get to Silverstone as we are obviously very keen to get our championship challenge back on track.”

Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: “We clearly haven’t been quick enough all weekend and we’ll go back to Enstone to analyse why. We’ll then react to those conclusions and hopefully get ourselves back up to where we want to be, which is fighting for podiums and wins. We have an aero test before Silverstone, a new bodywork package and other tweaks to come so there is plenty of potential to improve. We simply weren’t quick enough this weekend.”