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Friday, 7 september 2012
Kimi Räikkönen and Jérôme D’Ambrosio took to the
Autodromo Nazionale di Monza in glorious
conditions today for the first practice sessions
ahead of Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix.
Jérôme – who is standing in for the team’s
regular driver Romain Grosjean whilst he serves
a one race ban – notched up a total of 65 laps
as he completed his first Grand Prix sessions
since the 2011 Brazilian Grand Prix.
Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director –
Technical programme notes :
Dry conditions enabled us to complete a full
programme today.
Pirelli’s hard tyres were used in the morning.
Pirelli’s hard and medium tyres were used in the
afternoon with long runs undertaken on both.
What we learned today :
We’re pretty happy with the car on both low and
high fuel.
Jérôme acquainted himself admirably on track.
Kimi Räikkönen, E20-05
Free practice 1 : P7, 1:26.046, 25 laps
Free practice 2 : P6, 1:25.504, 42 laps
Kimi :
“It was an okay day. We tried a few different
things with no issues and I’m happy with the car.
Our long run pace was not too bad and we weren’t
too far away from the fastest lap set today
either. There aren’t many corners here, but
running with low downforce means the grip is not
as good under braking and cornering through the
chicanes. It’s not easy to get the perfect lap
here but maybe we can improve tomorrow ; we
shall see.”
Jérôme D’Ambrosio, E20-03
Free practice 1 : P15, 1:27.180, 29 laps
Free practice 2 : P12, 1:26.157, 36 laps
Jérôme :
“Today went pretty well overall and it feels
good to be back in the car. It’s not an easy
task stepping in at the last minute ; there’s a
lot to take in and with a low downforce track
like Monza it can be quite tricky to find the
limit, but we completed a busy schedule and put
in a lot of laps which is a good start. It’s
difficult to say where we are right now, but we
made steady progress between the two sessions
and my aim for tomorrow is to take another step
forwards and see where we go from there. So far
so good.”
Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director :
“It’s nice to have a straight-forward Friday
with dry running ; it’s our first for a while !
The lower downforce here means we focused on the
various compromises ; getting the car to work in
the corners, balancing the need for a soft car
to ride the kerbs versus a stiff car to enable
high speed change of direction and so on. We
feel we’ve made good progress with the running
we’ve had. Jérôme has done a great job ;
chipping away at the time difference between him
and Kimi without any problems while absorbing
all the procedures and information we’ve thrown
at him.”
Saturday, 8 September 2012
Kimi Räikkönen and Jérôme D’Ambrosio will start
the Italian Grand Prix from P7 and P15
respectively at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza
tomorrow. Jérôme set the sixteenth fastest time
today but gains a position thanks to a penalty
for Pastor Maldonado, while Kimi notched the
eighth quickest lap but also gains a place
courtesy of a penalty for Paul di Resta. Despite
not dazzling on paper this afternoon, the team
is confident that the E20’s downforce levels and
efficient tyre usage will bring a stronger
result in the race.
Kimi Räikkönen, E20-05. Q : P8, 1:24.855,
Grid P7. FP3 : P8, 1:25.255
“We didn’t have the speed today but at least we
are in the top ten. We’ve been in more or less
the same position all weekend so today’s pace
was not a big surprise. It’s a long race and
usually we are a bit stronger in race conditions.
It is possible to overtake here so let’s see
what happens tomorrow. ”
Jérôme D’Ambrosio, E20-03. Q : P16, 1:25.408,
Grid P15. FP3 : P17 1:25.973
“I have mixed feelings really to be honest. I
progressed through to Q2 but it’s frustrating
not to have done a bit better as I’m really
close in the second and third sectors but I’ve
struggling a bit in the first since yesterday.
About 60-70% of the difference to Kimi is lost
there, so there’s a lot of time to be found in
just two corners ; we need to work on that for
tomorrow. There’s a lot to take in for me this
weekend so it’s not too bad, but I would have
liked a bit more.”
Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director :
“P6 was our target ; we missed it by half a
tenth.”
How do you assess today’s qualifying
performance ?
“We’re a little disappointed with where we are
on the grid for tomorrow’s race, as P6 was our
target with Kimi’s car and we missed that by
just half a tenth. Kimi had Fernando [Alonso]
ahead of his for his last run, which should have
given him a nice tow. Unfortunately though,
Fernando was not fast on that lap and we were
too close to him in the Ascari chicane which
cost about a tenth and a half. That’s qualifying
sometimes.”
What can be achieved in the race ?
“We’re confident that – with the amount of
downforce we have on the car – we can have a
strong race. Our tyre degradation is generally
less than some of our rivals so that should
assist us too. We’re pretty confident we can put
in a decent performance and score some good
points.”
How was Jérôme’s first qualifying session for
the team ?
“It’s been a steep learning curve for him and
he’s done a good job. It’s going to be a
difficult race for him tomorrow with the low
downforce specification on the car, especially
pushing through the chicanes in this
configuration. We hope that his progressive
improvement over the weekend so far will
continue through the race, as anything can
happen tomorrow.”
How do the different tyre compounds perform
here ?
“Both compounds are very close together. The
medium slightly had the edge for qualifying
today, yet it also showed pretty low degradation
when we used it for long runs on Friday.”
Sunday, 9 September 2012
Kimi Räikkönen scored a strong fifth place in
the Italian Grand Prix to move him into third
position in the Drivers’ Championship after a
hot and fast-paced race at the Autodromo
Nazionale di Monza. Kimi is now just one point
off second-placed Lewis Hamilton, whilst the
team falls to fourth position in the
Constructors’ Championship. Jérôme D’Ambrosio
made an impressive race debut for the team,
finishing in thirteenth place despite having no
KERS for most of the race.
Kimi started on used medium compound Pirelli
tyres, stopping on lap 17 for new hards.
Jérôme started on new hard compound tyres,
stopping on lap 27 for new mediums.
Jérôme’s stop at 2.44 seconds was the team’s
fastest-ever race pit stop.
Kimi Räikkönen, P5, E20-05
"It’s good to go into third position in the
Drivers’ Championship but we lost some points to
Fernando [Alonso] which is not ideal. It was a
difficult weekend as we were too slow in a
straight line, making it very difficult to hold
off anyone and even with the DRS it was
difficult to overtake the cars in front. We did
the one stop strategy and the tyres were fine.
We came into the race looking for sixth or
seventh so fifth is the maximum we could have
done here this weekend.”
Jérôme D’Ambrosio P13, E20-03
“It was a pretty long and difficult race for me
today. After losing my KERS on lap 6 it was
always going to be tough as that’s worth about
half a second per lap around here. I got a good
start and was up fighting with Daniel [Ricciardo]
and Nico [Rosberg], but once I lost that extra
boost it was impossible to keep up and I dropped
back. My last stint on the medium tyres in clean
air was pretty good and I didn’t make many
mistakes, so maybe with a bit more luck we could
have had a slightly better result. My main aim
was to finish the race and I’ve achieved that so
it’s not so bad overall. It was great to be back
in the car and especially with such a fantastic
team ; I’ve learnt a lot this weekend.”
Eric Boullier, Team Principal
"From this weekend I don’t think we could have
expected better. The key to a good championship
position at the end of the season is always
scoring points, even when it is a difficult
weekend. Kimi delivered exactly as we wanted
from him today and moving to third in the
standings is a just reward. We are still in
contact with those ahead of us in both
Championships with seven races to go. Jérôme did
an amazing job after being thrown in at the deep
end. Without his KERS issue I’m pretty sure he
could have achieved a points finish. We are
optimistic that from Singapore onwards we will
be much more competitive due to the circuit
layout and updates we have coming, meaning we
will be able to score more points in every
race.”
Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director
“We weren’t looking forward to coming to Monza
as it doesn’t play to the strengths of our car
so we’re very happy to come away with fifth
place from Kimi. He drove exceptionally well at
a circuit where we knew we weren’t going to be
super competitive. It’s fantastic that he has
moved up into third place in the Drivers’
Championship, and is now just one point off
second. Jérôme had one arm tied behind his back
with a KERS failure very early in the race and
KERS is worth a significant amount of time here.
He did a very credible job despite this, and his
pace on the medium compound tyre in the second
part of the race was pretty good. We now move to
a circuit which we feel should really suit our
car so we’re looking forward to the fly-aways.”
Ricardo Penteado, Renault Sport F1 Team
Support Leader
“A very difficult race for us. Kimi did a
fantastic job to finish in fifth ; he was flat
out for the entire race. Jérôme finished his
first race for the team, also performing well,
despite having a KERS problem early on. We have
to look at both of these issues and improve for
Singapore.” |
