| Source: lotusf1team.com |
P13 to P3 in Singapore, P9 to P2 in Korea… is there anything our Iceman can’t do? Catch up with Kimi as he talks us through safety car shenanigans, intra-team tussles, and what it’ll take to catch that pesky Bull…
Q: ANOTHER FANTASTIC P2 PERFORMANCE; ARE YOU PLEASED – OR EVEN SURPRISED – WITH THE RESULT FROM WHERE YOU STARTED ON THE GRID?
KR: We did it in Singapore and also a couple of times before that so I wasn’t really surprised. Second place is ok and a good result for the team, but we’re here to win and having to fight your way to the front from a bad starting position is not ideal.
Q: WHAT DO YOU THINK WAS THE KEY TO YOUR RISE THROUGH THE FIELD?
KR: My start was not too bad. Even if we lost out a little in the first corner I made the places back and then another one too at Turn 3. We made good use of the safety car to push hard in the free air which made up some places and put us third, so that helped for sure. People might say it was good luck, but sometimes these things go with you and others they go against you. We made up some places even before that happened, and if we hadn’t had the speed then we wouldn’t have been in a position to take advantage. You could see at the end that we had more than enough pace to keep the others behind, so I think it’s deserved.
Q: SPEAKING OF THE SAFETY CAR, IT GOT A LITTLE CLOSE BETWEEN YOU AND ROMAIN WHEN RACING RESUMED…
KR: It was quite close I guess but we both came out of it ok. He basically gave me the place with a small mistake at the end of the lap and I already knew there were yellow flags into Turn 3, so I knew if I overtook him into Turn 1 he wouldn’t be able to pass me back. It wasn’t too difficult; he defended pretty hard but I managed to get through.
Q: YOU CERTAINLY SEEMED MORE COMFORTABLE IN THE CAR THAN AT ANY OTHER POINT IN THE WEEKEND; WHY DO YOU THINK THIS WAS?
KR: The issues we had in qualifying weren’t so bad today, but it always seems to be the case that we perform better in the race than on Saturdays. I think I understand the reasons why we’ve been struggling a little on single lap pace now; it’s a combination of small things that maybe we need to do differently early in the weekend, but it’s not like we’ve suddenly lost over a second in qualifying that we can’t get back. It’s making my life more difficult, but it is how it is and we’ll keep working to improve it for the last few races.
Q: HAD YOU QUALIFIED BETTER, WOULD YOU HAVE BEEN ABLE TO BEAT SEBASTIAN [VETTEL] TODAY?
KR: Qualifying was pretty awful for me, but it’s difficult to say whether a better grid position would have made the difference. Sebastian was faster than us at the end; not massively, but a little bit for sure and his tyres were fresher too so I think it would have been tough to catch him in any case. We were closer to the Red Bull today than we have been in some races, but not close enough…
Q: DO YOU THINK THERE’S THE POTENTIAL TO ADD TO YOUR WIN TALLY BEFORE THE END OF THE SEASON?
KR: If we can improve our performance on Saturdays then there’s always a chance, so we’ll keep trying for sure and see what we can do.
KIMI RÄIKKÖNEN SPACE 
Hi. I wonder if you can tell me about Villeneuves status. Is he still totally against every move that Kimi does or has he changed his mind?
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Hi Lars, i watch F1 on french tv n as u knw Villeneuve comments the race with another guy. I’m friend with that guy on fb n he’s pretty objective with his comments. Before the Belgium GP i decided to send him a message to explain him how Villeneuve comments’ were bad n unfair especially when he’s talking about Kimi. Really sometimes u might think that Kimi has slept with his wife when ur trying to find a reason y he hates Kimi that much lol. I haven’t asked the commentator if he has talked with Villeneuves but since Spa his comments r no more the same, i dnt knw whether its a coincidence or not but he’s kinda changed his perception towards Kimi. For sure we r not close to see him on that forum but i can’t remember he said something unacceptable on Kimi after Spa. He seems on the right path lol. Even when Kimi got passed JB in Singapore, he shouted WONDERFUL! Definitely he’s talking less rubbish now.
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Coming to the race, the podium is fantastic n this one belongs to Denise, RIP. However we owes much to luck, i’m still frustrated n disappointed with the quali, we can’t totally blame Lotus for Kimi’s 10th place on the grid, sure the car won’t fight the Bulls or Mercedes but Kimi should have at least been 5th in quali, i thought the quali issue was partly fixed after Germany but it has came back. We should not be fooled by the last podiums, if Kimi carries that issue in Ferrari next year, he’ll get destroyed by Nando. Yesterday he would have finished about 7th without favourable circumstances. Obviously he has been a very unlucky driver many times but we can’t rely on favourable events to expect good results. His race-pace is always excellent but can’t be exploited in traffic. Yesterday there were at least 3 incidents which help to climb on the podium, the incident in Turn 3 on 1st lap where he gained 3 places i think, then Mercedes fucked up Lewis race by letting on track losing 2sec per lap, Nico’s front-wing n finally the SC. 4 incidents then not to mention Webber’s 10th place penalty on the grid. However Kimi got the podium due to ‘special’ circumstances but he went for it for the 2nd place, that one was down to his qualities. Romain is just an idiot, he could have caused a DNF for both cars, i can’t stand him, when talking to French tv he didn’t forget to mention 2 times that Kimi has been lucky, whats ur problem man? Shut the fuck up. I’m Kimi hasn’t talked to him since yesterday, he pretends to be smiling everytime but he’s not being himself, he even declared that THE SC ONCE AGAIN DENY HIM A WIN lol, what the fuck r u smoking guy? Dnt knw if he’s trying to fool us but at least he’s funny. Something less funny is Kimi’s 1st pit-stp ysterday, he was 2-3 sec ahead Nando before the 1st stop but the guys keep him on track so that when he pits he 4 sec behind Nando, y the guys didn’t cover Nando, i wanted to smash the tv ysterday, Kimi was stuck behind Nando for at least 10 laps while he was easily faster, when i saw Nando came in, i was sure that Slade would call him to cover Nando but it wasn’t the case. Unacceptable decision personally, ridiculous. Maybe they had a plan but any strategy would have been better instead of getting stucked for many laps. I hope the luck will remain for the remaining races as it won’t be easy if quali is not improved. Driver of the day is Nico personally, i hope he gets Kimi’s seat coz he deserves it more than anyone else
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Thanks to Rudi for clearing things up. I heard about the comment in Singapore, “Magnifique” I believe it was and it should have been made by Mr Villeneuve. Agree about the driver of the day. Remember Monza with a fighting Nico in a Williams and a furious Webber is hunting him. It was 2010 and he’s a grown up driver now.
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