Friday, 15 November 2013
Heikki Kovalainen ended the first day of
practice for the United States Grand Prix with
the fifth fastest time at the Circuit of the
Americas in Austin, Texas. Team-mate Romain
Grosjean was eighth fastest during an afternoon
of glorious blue skies; contrasting the delayed
and interrupted morning session.
Technical programme notes:
Both drivers ran the long wheelbase
configuration E21.
Pirelli’s hard [orange] compound tyre was used
in the morning session, the hard and medium
[white] in the afternoon.
The morning session was initially delayed by fog
preventing the medical helicopter from taking
off, then due to issues with the helicopter’s
communications once it was in the air.
What we learned today:
The E21 demonstrated strong potential using both
tyre compounds.
Heikki was quickly up to speed.
Heikki Kovalainen, E21-05
Free Practice 1: P13, 1:39.487, 18 laps
Free Practice 2: P5, 1:38.073, 41 laps
Heikki: “It’s been a pretty smooth landing,
joining Lotus F1 Team. We’ve had no major issues
on track today and we just need to keep chipping
away to see how good we can get the car for
tomorrow and Sunday. We lost a bit of track time
in the morning, but the car balance was
reasonably good straight away. I was able to
settle in and work immediately on the setup and
tyre work. All the procedures and routines are
quite similar up and down the pit lane, plus I’m
familiar with all the systems from driving with
a Renault engine already this year and
previously, so it was a pretty straight-forward
day.”
Romain Grosjean, E21-04
Free Practice 1: P11, 1:39.238, 13 laps
Free Practice 2: P8, 1:38.255, 33 laps
Romain: “It was an interesting start to the day
waiting to see what the helicopter would do.
After that the morning was about finding grip in
the cold conditions. The afternoon was much
warmer and we were able to complete some good
work. We struggled a bit to get the brakes
exactly as I want them on low fuel, but once
that’s sorted we should be well placed for
tomorrow. Certainly the car feels good on the
long runs so it’s a positive start to the
weekend.”
Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director:
“Obviously our programme was interrupted
somewhat in the morning which deprived Heikki of
some vital track time to get used to the E21,
but this doesn’t seem to have hurt his day and
we’re very happy that he was immediately
comfortable with the car. Romain had a couple of
issues with braking on his lower fuel runs which
we’re working on improving for tomorrow. It’s
difficult to draw conclusions from the cooler
morning practice, but in the afternoon we were
happy with the pace from both drivers;
particularly on the long runs.”
Saturday, 16 November 2013
Romain Grosjean ended the day third with
Heikki Kovalainen eighth during qualifying for
tomorrow’s United States Grand Prix. Cool, dry,
misty conditions prevailed during the morning’s
final practice session, with rising temperatures
and sporadic gusts of wind the feature of
qualifying at the Circuit of the Americas.
An unpredictable Q1 session saw varying grip
levels and wind speed make a significant impact
on the latter stages of proceedings. Romain
Grosjean benefitted to progress in tenth
position without the need for a run on the
medium compound tyre, having topped the times
with his initial effort on hards. A comfortable
start for Heikki Kovalainen meanwhile saw him
move through to the next phase in seventh place
after a solid medium-shod run.
Q2 by contrast was a tightly fought affair. A
single run on medium rubber for Romain clinched
fifth spot on the time sheets; the Frenchman
setting a competitive first lap before aborting
his second attempt after a big lock-up. A solid
opening effort from Heikki was followed by a
last-gasp second stint, in which the Finn soaked
up the pressure to reach the pole position
shootout by the narrowest of margins in tenth.
A single, medium tyre run apiece in the final
showdown brought a strong finale to Saturday in
Austin for the boys in black and gold; Romain
making his third top-three qualifying appearance
from the last six races, with Heikki impressing
in eighth.
Heikki Kovalainen, E21-05
Q: P8, 1:37.715
FP3: P13, 1:37.879
“I knew yesterday that we had a good car, but I
didn’t really set myself a target for qualifying.
I felt that I got pretty much everything I could
from it today, as I struggled a bit compared to
yesterday with the cooler temperatures this
afternoon. Overall, everything’s been positive
so far and we got into the top ten. I’m not
making any predictions, but we’ve seen that Kimi
could do pretty well working forwards from
similar grid positions so hopefully tomorrow we
can have another good day.”
Romain Grosjean, E21-04
Q: P3, 1:37.155
FP3: P5, 1:37.345
“It’s not been the easiest weekend in terms of
finding the right balance with the car, so to be
third on the grid is a good result. We managed
to go through Q1 on the hard tyre which was not
the plan initially, but it was a nice surprise
and gave us options for the two following
sessions. It’s great for the team to have Heikki
[Kovalainen] in the top ten too – especially
with Mercedes and Ferrari struggling a little
bit – as we’re still fighting them hard in the
Constructors’ Championship, so hopefully we can
score good points with both cars tomorrow.
Sebastian [Vettel] and Mark [Webber] were very
quick today, but of course we’ll do our best to
round up the bulls in the race; we are in Texas
after all!”
Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director:
How was qualifying for the team?
We’re very happy with today’s performance from
both drivers. Romain is once more leading the
charge against the Red Bulls after a reasonably
straight-forward progression through the
qualifying sessions. Heikki has come in and
demonstrated that he’s certainly got the ability
to deliver at the front of the pack; progressing
through to the top ten with no real dramas
despite his limited experience with our car.
How impressive has Heikki been so far this
weekend?
He’s jumped into the car and delivered exactly
what we’ve wanted from him. He qualified solidly
in the top ten and has a realistic opportunity
to score good points tomorrow. As we’ve seen
this year, our car is often stronger in the race
than it is in qualifying so he has great
potential tomorrow; especially as he’s learning
the car more with every lap.
Considerations for the race?
Our long run pace looks good and there are
overtaking opportunities here. The track has
evolved well since last year, so there isn’t
such a hunt for grip and that should help tyre
performance. We’re feeling quite confident.
Sunday, 17 November 2013
Romain Grosjean produced a superbly
controlled drive to take second place in the
United States Grand Prix from third on the
grid, whilst a difficult afternoon for Heikki
Kovalainen saw the Finn drop to fifteenth from
his eighth place grid slot.
A lightning start from Romain saw the Frenchman
leapfrog Mark Webber for second place at the
first corner, with Heikki
dropping to twelfth as the safety car emerged
for an incident involving Adrian Sutil. Both
drivers maintained position at
the restart; remaining as such until the first
round of pit stops.
Managing his pace and tyre degradation perfectly,
Romain held off a strong charge from Mark Webber
immediately following a
single pit stop each, and again in the latter
stages of the race. Heikki rose as high as tenth
after the opening batch of
stops, only to suffer a loss of front downforce
which forced the Finn to pit for a new nose
having dropped two positions in
quick succession.
Romain crossed the line to clinch a fourth
podium finish from the last five races – his
sixth overall in 2013 – to see the
Frenchman ranked the second highest points
scorer since the Singapore Grand Prix behind
World Champion Sebastian Vettel.
Heikki came home fifteenth at the flag.
Kimi Räikkönen’s absence from the race sees him
fall to fourth place in the Drivers’
Championship on an unchanged 183
points; four behind Lewis Hamilton in third.
Romain remains in seventh position with 132
points; trailing Nico Rosberg by
29. The team remains fourth in the Constructors’
Championship on 315 points from Ferrari’s 333,
with third spot remaining a
firm target heading into the final round in
Brazil.
Heikki started from eighth on the grid with a
scrubbed set of medium tyres; pitting for new
hards on lap 17 and fresh
mediums on lap 31. The Finn’s second stop
included a nose change after the Finn reported a
loss of front downforce.
Romain started from third on a scrubbed set of
medium tyres; making a single stop for a new set
of hards on lap 29.
Heikki Kovalainen, P15, E21-05
“My start wasn’t great but then it was going
okay until the first pit stop as I was racing
with the pack with the car
feeling quite good. After the pit stop I started
to have a few problems, but it was difficult to
know exactly what was going
on. We had issues with downforce so we changed
the front wing and after that it was much better,
although still not as good
as it’s felt previously this weekend. There was
a KERS issue too, though not enough to account
for my lack of race pace.
We’ll have a good look at the data and hopefully
be on top of things far better for the race in
Brazil.”
Romain Grosjean, P2, E21-04
“That was a really tough race. I had to have
probably one of my best ever drives to keep Mark
[Webber] behind and it’s a
great feeling to have tamed at least one of the
Bulls in Texas as they clearly had the fastest
package today. We knew a good
start would be the key, so making up one place
in the first corner was really important and the
car was just fantastic from
there onwards. The whole team here and back at
Enstone are doing an amazing job. Every day I
see them working hard together
to keep us at the front and when you look at the
gap to the next nearest challenger, it’s clear
that we’re the second best
team after Red Bull right now. I think this
place must bring me luck; this time last year I
found out my wife was pregnant
and now I’ve equalled my best finish in Formula
1, so I can’t wait to come back again and see
what happens next year!”
Eric Boullier, Team Principal
“It’s been another positive weekend for the
team. We scored more points than our
championship rivals through a perfect drive
from Romain. It really was his best Grand Prix
ever and another excellent performance to add to
his recent run of great
form. The only way we could fight the Red Bulls
was if Romain made a great start and that’s
exactly what he delivered. It’s
disappointing that Heikki couldn’t convert his
eighth place on the grid to a points finish, but
we had issues with his front
wing and KERS which we will investigate before
Brazil.”
Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director
“We congratulate Romain on an absolutely
faultless race of 100% perfection lap after lap.
He was under enormous pressure
from Mark Webber in what was clearly a faster
car and he did exactly what was asked of him at
every turn of the race. It was
a shame for Heikki as he didn’t have a great
start, then he had an issue with front wing and
then KERS. On the plus side, he
ran to the end of the race so has gained
valuable experience in the E21 ahead of Brazil.”
Ricardo Penteado, Renault Sport F1 Team Support
Leader
“A great result for Romain and awesome to see
our package beating one of the Red Bulls on
sheer pace. At this stage in the
season – and in the fight for the Constructors’
Championship – these points will be very
important. Heikki did a good job
all weekend but unfortunately could not
challenge for the points after a change for a
new front wing and then a KERS issue
when he rejoined. It seems to be a mechanical
issue and we’ll check after tonight to see how
to prevent a reoccurrence in
Brazil.” |
