08/07/2012
NEWS STORY
Lotus F1 Team finished in a strong fifth and sixth position after a fast-paced British Grand Prix at Silverstone today. Kimi Raikkonen led home team-mate Romain Grosjean in a dry race, with the former setting the race's fastest lap, and the latter posting the second fastest time.
Lotus F1 Team remain in third position in the Constructors' Championship, with Kimi moving to fifth position in the Drivers' Championship and Romain retaining seventh in the standings.
Both drivers started on new soft compound Pirelli tyres. Romain stopped on lap 2 to replace his front wing and change to new hard compound tyres. Kimi stopped on laps 13 and 34 for new sets of hard compound tyres. Romain made his final stop for new hard compound tyres on lap 26.
Kimi Raikkonen: "I had a pretty okay first few corners but I had to avoid the cars in front and drove over the kerb on the inside of the turn, then I lost a place and was pushed wide. If I had stayed in front of Mark [Webber] at the start it would have been pretty good seeing where he finished, but after that Lewis [Hamilton] also got past me. I fought back and our car was strong, especially on the harder tyres. If I'd had a better start I could have finished much better; but that's racing and sometimes you pay a bigger price than you expect from the first lap."
Romain Grosjean: "I'm happy with my race today. Unfortunately I had an incident on the first corner at the start of the race where I was on outside of Lewis [Hamilton] and had a Force India that hit me and broke my front wing. That's when I thought that our race was going to be seriously compromised, which it would have been if the rain had come. The team did a fantastic job in giving me a great race strategy and we believed in ourselves to go for long stints with both sets of hard tyres. I was still battling hard with the cars around me, but trying to save the tyres at the same time. It became harder towards the end of the race but I hung on to my sixth place. Kimi was too far in front of me to catch him at the end of the race. We both scored good points for the team, so it's been a good day."
Eric Boullier, Team Principal: "It was a difficult weekend where weather conditions made for something of a lottery in qualifying, but once again we have had a good race. If we want to do better, we have to improve our starting positions. Romain had a battle to come back from an early stop to replace his front wing; he was very fast and very strong from then on. Kimi had a very good race too. As a team, we had good strategies, our car was fast and consistent and fifth and sixth position yield good points. Once again our car was strong on a different circuit and in a variety of conditions. We're still missing something to get the final piece of the jigsaw, but it's a nice frustration to have."
James Allison, Technical Director: "We saw really strong drives from both Kimi and Romain. We didn't have the best grid positions but both drivers made up places in the race. The E20 delivered performance that was the equal of any car today, and it's encouraging that even with our less than promising starting positions, we've held on to third position in the Constructors' Championship. I think we'll only be stronger in the second half of the season and when everything falls into place in qualifying and the race we'll truly be a force to be reckoned with."
Ricardo Penteado, Renault Sport F1 Team Support Leader: "We introduced new engines here as Silverstone is a power sensitive circuit where extra horsepower can make a big difference. Fifth and sixth positions are relatively good results to take away. It was a shame that Romain had to make an early stop after the incident as his pace was very strong; to go from last to sixth at the end demonstrates this. Kimi could also have gained one position had he not been held up by Schumacher, but most importantly we retain third in the championship."
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