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Friday 27 July 2012
Kimi Räikkönen and Romain Grosjean took to the
Hungaroring circuit today for the first practice
sessions ahead of Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix.
With a wonderfully warm morning and marvellously
mixed conditions in the afternoon, the team
assessed a number of aerodynamic developments.
Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director -
Technical programme notes :
Pirelli’s medium compound tyres were used in the
morning.
The medium, soft and intermediate compounds were
used in the afternoon.
We spent the morning tuning the new aerodynamic
device with various improvements after initial
running in Hockenheim.
Romain had a normal programme in the morning,
and an interrupted afternoon after an off which
damaged his bodywork.
What we learned today :
The new aerodynamic system is now working well
and will have its race debut in the near future.
Kimi Räikkönen, E20-05
Free practice 1 : P8, 1:23.983, 24 laps
Free practice 2 : P2, 1:22.180, 20 laps
Kimi : “It was a normal Friday for me. We did
the normal things and tried to make the car as
quick as it can be. We were second fastest which
was good, and we’ve managed to improve the setup
on my car over the last few races so I’ve been
pretty happy with it. We’re just making small
improvements, but we’re making them all the time
and going in the right direction. It’s only
Friday, but we’re hoping for another good day
tomorrow. ”
Romain Grosjean, E20-04
Free practice 1 : P5, 1:23.633, 24 laps
Free practice 2 : P9, 1:22.922, 12 laps
Romain : “Not the best day we’ve had but not the
worst either. The car didn’t feel quite as I
like it, similar to how it felt in Hockenheim,
which made things a bit tricky. I made a mistake
running wide on the exit of turn seven in the
second session which meant I touched the wall,
so a big apology to the guys for that. On a more
positive note we now understand a few things
which need improving in terms of setup, so
hopefully tomorrow these will make a difference
and I’ll have the confidence to push a bit
harder and show the true pace of the car.”
James Allison, Technical Director : “We
conducted valuable analysis of our latest
aerodynamic developments on Kimi’s car this
morning which help bring it a step closer to
deployment in a race sometime in the future.
Romain was uncomfortable with his car today
which is something we will try to understand
this evening. Kimi was pretty happy overall,
even this morning when we weren’t running the
native downforce settings for this circuit. With
the Hungary setup in the afternoon, Kimi was
comfortable, quick, and happy with both
specifications of dry tyre. Whilst we haven’t
conducted our usual long runs today it looks
like both compounds should be reasonable race
tyres.”
Saturday 28 July 2012
Romain Grosjean secured a best-ever front row
starting spot with the second fastest time in
qualifying for tomorrow’s Hungarian Grand Prix,
whilst Kimi Räikkönen will start from fifth
position after a searing hot session at the
Hungaroring.
Kimi Räikkönen, E20-05. Q : P5, 1:21.730. FP3 :
P6, 1:21.953
“Not a bad qualifying performance for sure, but
it’s a bit disappointing I didn’t go faster when
it mattered. The car feels good, but I didn’t
get the crucial lap together at the right time.
Let’s see what happens tomorrow.”
Romain Grosjean, E20-04. Q : P2, 1.21.366 FP3 :
P7 1:22.110
“Qualifying was very tight and it was difficult
to see where we would end up so on the front row
is fantastic. We came here after a difficult
weekend at Hockenheim and to be honest I didn’t
get off to the best start yesterday. We worked
hard to improve things overnight and the car
felt much better in practice this morning. I’m
very happy and just a little bit surprised to be
P2 on the grid. Today’s job is done, let’s see
what we can do tomorrow.”
Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director :
“It’s great to be on the front row.”
How do you assess today’s qualifying performance
?
“It’s been a good day. It’s great to be on the
front row with Romain. We’d like to have seen
Kimi a little further up the order – especially
as his Q2 time was better than he achieved in Q3
– but overall it’s been an excellent weekend so
far ; let’s hope that continues tomorrow. Our
target has been to improve our qualifying
performance ; we’ve clearly demonstrated that
today.”
What can be achieved in the race ?
“We’re starting from the front row so there is
good potential. It’s a difficult circuit to
overtake – one of the hardest next to Monaco and
Singapore. A good start will clearly be very
important. After the start, even with the DRS,
the straight is not long enough to mount an
overtaking bid unless a car ahead is suffering
from tyre degradation or something else to slow
them down.”
How do both tyre compounds perform here ?
“Both the medium and soft compounds have
exhibited pretty low degradation so we have no
worries or concerns about durability, even with
high temperatures.”
Does the weather forecast throw any curve balls
?
“Conditions similar to those we’ve seen over the
last couple of days have been forecast. There is
potential for some rain, but it’s so hot here
there could be thunder showers like we saw on
Friday. We’re ready for whatever the weather
throws at us.”
Sunday 29 July 2012
Lotus F1 Team scored a fantastic double podium
in Budapest this afternoon, with second place
for Kimi Räikkönen and third for Romain Grosjean
in a searing hot and searing paced Hungarian
Grand Prix. The team returns to third position
in the Constructors’ Championship, just one
point off second. Despite his strong result,
Kimi drops to fifth spot in the Driver’s
Championship ; just one point off today’s race
winner Lewis Hamilton who is now fourth in the
standings. Romain remains in eighth, equal on
points with seventh placed driver Jenson Button.
Both drivers started on scrubbed soft compound
Pirelli tyres, changing to another set of
scrubbed softs and finishing on new sets of the
medium compound tyres.
Romain stopped for tyres on laps 19 and 39. Kimi
on laps 20 and 45.
Kimi Räikkönen, P2, E20-05
"It’s a shame we couldn’t quite get the win but
it’s a good result for the team and we’ll keep
pushing to make that final step. My start was
not too bad but then we had some issues with the
KERS and I lost a place to Fernando [Alonso].
When we got it working again we were stuck in
the pack so it was a bit frustrating, but once
we were in clear air we could push and it looked
like we could make up a few places in the second
stops. The team said it would be very close with
Romain, but it was okay in the end. We managed
to catch Lewis [Hamilton] but it was impossible
to pass.”
Romain Grosjean, P3, E20-04
“It’s a good result for the team, but to be
honest I’m a bit disappointed. We had a good
battle for the lead with Lewis [Hamilton] all
through the first two stints, but then I got
stuck behind Michael [Schumacher] who didn’t
respect the blue flags at all which cost me a
lot of time. Because of this I lost a place to
Kimi, and at the same time a possible chance to
fight for the win. It’s very hard to overtake
here ; every time I came close to someone in
front I would lose a bit of front end grip which
made it impossible. Still, that’s racing and
we’ve take home a lot of points for the
Constructors’ Championship which is a real
positive.”
Eric Boullier, Team Principal
"Both cars on the podium end a pretty good
weekend for the team. For everyone back at
Enstone we must pay credit as they work so hard
for results like this, but seldom get to taste
the champagne at the track. I’m very happy that
Romain came back after a tough weekend in
Germany and I’m very happy to see Kimi fighting
for the win. Our new approach to qualifying is
delivering. We qualified better this weekend and
we chased the leader of the race for many laps.
On a different track layout which allows
overtaking I think we could have won this race.”
James Allison, Technical Director
“It was an excellent race from both our drivers,
from the E20 and from the whole team. We made
very strong progress with a good haul of Drivers’
and Constructors’ points today. We’re only just
past the halfway mark in the season so it’s not
fantasy to think that we’re still in the hunt in
both championships. The general trend is of our
car getting stronger and I hope that we can
press that home in the coming races.”
Ricardo Penteado, Renault Sport F1 Team Support
Leader
“A fantastic double podium today and very
important for the championship. We’ve worked
very closely with the chassis team all weekend
to deliver the correct engine response into and
out of the many corners of the Hungaroring and
the package has looked quick all weekend. It’s
very positive that we are able to score results
on all types of tracks, from the high speed
circuits such as Hockenheim to the low average
speeds of the Hungaroring.” |
