21/09/2013
NEWS STORY
Mat Coch writes:
Following his early exit from qualifying Kimi Raikkonen wasn't hanging around, the Finn leaving the circuit almost immediately after his exit from Q2.
The 2007 world champion struggled through Saturday with a sore back, a legacy of a testing crash he suffered in 2001 when driving for Sauber.
It's understood Raikkonen was more comfortable during qualifying than he had been in practice, but by that time the damage had been done. Without the ability to fine tune the car set-up the Lotus was less than perfect. Thirteenth was therefore the best he could manage, four-tenths off the pace he needed to progress in to the final phase.
Despite his early exit both from qualifying and the circuit the team is confident Raikkonen will recover sufficiently overnight to start the race tomorrow.
Check out our Saturday gallery, here.