Lotus F1 Team kicked off the 2012 Formula 1
season with a day of mixed emotions in
Melbourne. Kimi Räikkönen mounted a superb
comeback charge, slicing through the field from
his P18 grid slot to finish well inside the
points in 7th. At the other end of the scale,
Romain Grosjean’s fairytale weekend came to a
cruel end on only the 3rd lap after contact
forced him to retire.
Both cars started on the yellow marked soft
compound tyres. Kimi made two stops, opting for
a soft-soft-medium strategy. Romain retired
before making a stop.
Romain’s retirement was caused by a collision
with Pastor Maldonado at turn 13, where the
Williams driver made contact with his right
front wheel, breaking the steering.
Kimi started the race’s final lap in P10 and
finished it in P7.
Kimi Räikkönen, P7, E20-03
“It feels like I’ve never been away.
Yesterday we made some mistakes which cost us
quite badly so it could easily have been better
in the race. I made a good start but then there
was an accident in front of me at the first
turn, so we lost a few places there as I had to
almost stop and move onto the grass to avoid it.
That made the race harder again as we had the
speed, but a lot of traffic to get through. When
you look at all these things we could have
finished in a much better position. We had the
safety car which I think actually hurt us a bit
as well. Overall the weekend was far from ideal,
but the car feels good and to come back to 7th
means we at least come away with some points.”
Romain Grosjean, DNF, E20-01
“I think we could have achieved a great result
today. It’s frustrating as I really wanted to
make the chequered flag and even the podium, but
on the positive side the car is performing very
well. I was keeping pace with the guys in front
of me and everything was looking good. My start
wasn’t great so we’ll need to have a look at the
data. Then of course there was the collision
with Pastor (Maldonado). From what I saw he
braked far too late and hit my right front wheel
which broke the steering and that was it; my
race was over. The team deserved better because
they have been working very hard, but by
tomorrow morning it will all be a memory. We’ll
move on to Malaysia now which is one of my
favourite circuits and focus on getting a result
there.”
Eric Boullier, Team Principal
"We should be leaving Australia with mixed
feelings, but actually we all have a little grin
on our faces tonight. Yes, we had great
expectations from Romain after his third
position in qualifying, and seeing another car
taking him out of the race early on was very
disappointing. But on the other hand, the
performance shown by the E20 this weekend makes
us optimistic for the rest of the season. The
team has produced a very solid car, responsive
to set-up changes, and quick. It has been a
tough winter, and I’d like to congratulate
everybody at Enstone for their hard work which
seems to have paid off. I’m proud to be part of
a team that can take blows like we suffered in
2011 and still bounce back to show what we are
made of. Kimi has been able to demonstrate that
we have more than just single-lap pace; gaining
11 places in his first race after a two-year
break is certainly a satisfying performance.
We’re now all looking forward to Sepang, a
completely different track, where we hope we’ll
be able to put on another decent show. We think
there’s definitely more to come from us."
James Allison, Technical Director
“Though we may have some disappointment from the
race, when you look at the weekend overall we
can be proud about how the car, team and our
drivers have performed as it’s a much more
satisfying story. Starting from P3 on the grid,
we hoped for something better than P7. However,
for Kimi to have converted his rather lowly grid
position into a handful of points gives us some
consolation. Most importantly, however, the car
looks quick and we are optimistic of bringing
home strong results with both cars in Malaysia.”
Ricardo Penteado, Renault Sport F1 Team
Support Leader
“Australia is a hard track engine-wise as we
need to deliver responsiveness out of the slow
and medium speed corners for good acceleration
down the straights. However this makes fuel
consumption very high, so careful engine
management is needed. Across the weekend we’ve
worked very well as a partnership, with a strong
starting position for Romain and ultimately an
excellent race result from Kimi giving us a
decent amount of points from the first race. Our
aim now is to build on this strong form in
Malaysia, which puts a very different set of
stresses on the RS27.”
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