|
Friday, 31 August 2012
Kimi Räikkönen and Romain Grosjean took to the
Spa-Francorchamps circuit in wet conditions
today for the first practice sessions ahead of
Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix.
The cold and very wet conditions meant that the
team only completed limited running in the
morning, when both cars ran the team’s new
aerodynamic device. No laps were completed by
the team in the afternoon.
Free Practice 2 Summary
0mins : It’s raining, a lot
5mins : Kimi gets into his car
17mins : Kimi gets out of his car
29mins : Romain thinks about putting his helmet
on, but decides against it
45mins : At the halfway stage, it’s still
raining
51mins : Will Buxton and Natalie Pinkham drop by
to cheer us up
68mins : The team fire up Kimi’s engine to keep
warm
73mins : Serious debate begins as to the best
choice of biscuits with our tea
80mins : Romain’s side of the garage gets a bit
chilly, so we fire up his motor too
90mins : An enthralling session of damp media
members and biscuit banter concludes
Kimi Räikkönen, E20-05
Free practice 1 : P23, 2:46.580, 9 laps
Free practice 2 : No time set, no laps completed
Kimi :
“There’s not much to say about today. It was too
wet to run and there was little point as the
forecast is for better conditions over the next
two days. I’m looking forward to driving the
circuit in the dry. It’s a shame that we haven’t
been able to evaluate our new developments as it
would have been interesting to see how they
perform here. Tomorrow is another day, let’s see
what happens.”
Romain Grosjean, E20-04
Free practice 1 : P21, 2:38.701, 9 laps
Free practice 2 : No time set, no laps completed
Romain :
“It’s a big shame we couldn’t do much running
today as it was so wet. I was really looking
forward to trying the famous ‘Device’ for the
first time, but I guess I’ll have to wait. The
weather should be better tomorrow, so we’ll have
a busy time getting two days of evaluation into
one session and then going straight into
qualifying. The E20 has been strong at every
circuit so far this year, so I’m sure it will be
pretty good around this track in any case.”
James Allison, Technical Director :
“The forecast for the next two days is for dry
and warmer weather so running today was not very
useful in terms of preparing for qualifying or
the race. Today’s rain also prevented us from
seeing how the ‘Device’ would perform in the
expected race conditions. With discretion being
the better part of valour we will conduct P3
tomorrow with a conventional aero package rather
than attempting to squeeze Friday’s intended
evaluation into the precious final practice
session. On the plus side we learned today that
the cars are working fine and we’re happy to end
the day with no damage from running in these
difficult conditions.”
Saturday, 1 September 2012
Kimi Räikkönen will start from P3 on the grid
with Romain Grosjean in P8 for tomorrow’s
Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps. Kimi
qualified in fourth position but gains a place
thanks to a penalty for Pastor Maldonado. Romain
set the ninth fastest time but also gains a
place courtesy of a penalty for Mark Webber.
Kimi Räikkönen, E20-05. Q : P4, 1:48.205. FP3 :
P2, 1:48.683
“It wasn’t the easiest of qualifying sessions.
The car is okay but it doesn’t look like we have
the speed that some others have and we were
certainly not quick enough for pole today. The
race is a different story. On the grid we’re in
front of of the guys who are ahead of us in the
championship so we’ll try to score more points
than them.”
Romain Grosjean, E20-04. Q : P9, 1.48.538 FP3 :
P8 1:49.266
“That wasn’t my best qualifying ever and I
struggled a little bit. I had traffic in Q1 and
I didn’t feel as confident with the car as I
would like. You can see how close it was in the
top ten so I suffered from not having everything
exactly as I wanted, especially on the softer
compound. Missing yesterday’s practice because
of the weather didn’t help either as any time in
the car is always beneficial, especially for a
long lap like Spa. I’m sure the car will be good
in the race and we should have a good strategy.”
Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director :
“We can still do things from where we start.”
How do you assess today’s qualifying performance
?
“A little disappointing to be honest as we hoped
for a bit more than that today. Kimi didn’t
quite get a perfect lap and Romain wasn’t happy
with the setup of his car. The car looks to have
been unusually difficult today, with some
inconsistency making it difficult to extract the
best lap time. This is unexpected, as previously
this season we’ve been able to find a good setup
very rapidly when there has been limited
running.”
What can be achieved in the race ?
“We’re looking forward to a strong race and
there looks to be no weakness in the car or our
race strategy. The race will be about tyre
management as the loads on the tyres are very
high here. If there are no strategic dramas we
hope to bring home another good points haul.”
How compromised were preparations after
yesterday’s poor weather ?
“We ran much less than normal, but it’s the same
situation for everyone. We still have a good
idea of what we are going to do in the race.
This is our twelfth race of the season so we
understand the tyres a lot more and we’re far
better off than in the earlier races.”
How do both tyre compounds perform here ?
“We’re happy, with no dramas and no warm-up
issues. We had a little graining with the soft
tyre this morning and we preferred the harder
tyre with high fuel loads. We’ll start with the
medium compound and take it from there.”
Sunday, 2 September 2012
 Kimi
Räikkönen took a strong third position in the
Belgian Grand Prix to move him back into fourth
position in the Drivers’ Championship after a
warm, dry and action packed race at
Spa-Francorchamps. Kimi is now just one point
off third-placed Mark Webber, whilst the team
remains in third in the Constructors’
Championship. Romain Grosjean had a short race,
ending with contact heading into the first
corner. He was later penalised by the Stewards
and is suspended from the next race in Monza,
Italy. The team will not appeal this decision
and will communicate the name of Romain’s
replacement as soon as possible.
Both drivers started on scrubbed medium compound
Pirelli tyres
Kimi stopped on laps 11 and 28, both times for
new hard compound tyres.
Both stops were sub 3 seconds.
Kimi Räikkönen, P3, E20-05
"I made a pretty okay start, similar to Jenson
[Button]’s and I overtook the Sauber. I saw a
lot of action in the mirrors but luckily it
missed me. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the
pace today. My car wasn’t great all weekend and
we couldn’t find a competitive setup. On new
tyres it was okay, but we had to use a lot of
downforce to prevent sliding. That meant we were
very slow on the straight. You could see this in
my battle with Michael [Schumacher]. Each time I
passed him he just went straight back past down
the Kemmel straight. My only chance was to go
for a gap at Eau Rouge. Luckily it paid off and
I managed to stay ahead of him that time. We
didn’t have the pace today and it wasn’t an easy
race, so P3 was not too bad.”
Romain Grosjean, DNF, E20-04
“When your life is all about racing, not being
allowed to attend an event is probably one of
the worst experiences you can go through. That
said, I do respect the verdict of the Stewards.
I got a good start - despite being disturbed by
Pastor’s early launch, which I think was the
case for everybody at the front - and was
heading into the first corner when the rear of
my car made contact with the front of Lewis
[Hamilton]’s. I honestly thought I was ahead of
him and there was enough room for both cars ; I
didn’t deliberately try to squeeze him or
anything like that. This first corner situation
obviously isn’t what anyone would want to happen
and thankfully no-one was hurt in the incident.
I wish to apologise to the drivers who were
involved and to their fans. I can only say that
today is part of a process that will make me a
better driver."
Eric Boullier, Team Principal
"It’s been a tough day for the team but we fully
respect the Stewards’ decision. Romain won’t be
driving at Monza but he still has our full
support. We’ll announce the name of his
replacement a bit later in the week. As far as
the race is concerned, unfortunately we didn’t
have the pace for Kimi to challenge Jenson
[Button] or Sebastian [Vettel]. We had to look
closely at the strategy during the race to see
if we should switch to one stop, but in the end
a podium finish still brings us some good points.
Of course, everyone talks about ‘the win’, and
this is something we all want. We were not fast
enough for it today, so we all need to keep
working hard for this goal."
James Allison, Technical Director
“Kimi did a really good job to salvage third
position today with a car which really wasn’t
quick enough, contrary to all our expectations
coming into the event. In actual fact, this has
been one of our tougher weekends and we’re
thankful that Kimi did his best to limit the
damage to our Championship aspirations.
Fortunately, Spa can be viewed as sufficiently
distinct in its characteristics to mean that
we’re not unduly worried about the car’s
potential performance heading to the next
races.”
Ricardo Penteado, Renault Sport F1 Team Support
Leader
“Getting a podium here is satisfying considering
the challenge of the track, with nearly three
quarters of the lap spent at full throttle. We
introduced new units this weekend to maximise
power on the straights and help overtaking. Wwe
needed it today when Kimi made an awesome move
to overtake Michal [Schumacher]. It bodes well
for Monza though where a similar emphasis is
placed on outright top speed.” |
