Lotus Group

9 June 2013

Rocky Mountaineers

Despite a tough race in Montreal much loved Lotus Grizzly Kimi Räikkönen set to snatch Schumacher’s Consecutive Points Win Record at Silverstone

The Canadian Grand Prix, the seventh round of the FIA 2013 Formula One® World Championship competition proved to be a thorny climb for the Lotus F1® Team when bad luck compounded with technical issues, and pit stop ‘jack faffage’ undermined the team’s usual competitive edge. Neither Lotus F1® Team driver had the best of starts. Kimi Räikkönen begun the race from P10 whilst a 10-place grid penalty from Monaco meant Romain Grosjean began at the back of the pack.

Despite the seemingly continuous difficulties both drivers displayed dogged persistence to improve their positioning. Romain hustled his way to a P13 finish, whilst Kimi managed to overcome the issues blighting his race to finish in P9. This itself was unfortunate as a last lap pass by Felipe Massa nudged Kimi back one spot, despite a vigorous defence by the Finn.

Kimi’s result means that although he equals Michael Schumacher’s record of consecutive points finishes, with both former world champions having scored points for 24 races each, unfortunately he falls to third place in the Drivers’ Championship. The team drops to fourth in the Constructors’ Championship, with Mercedes 20 points ahead in third.

Kimi Räikkönen, P9, E21-03  “My race didn’t start very well and then my brakes were fading with the pedal going soft; similar to the problem we had on Friday. It wasn’t ideal but at least the brakes were good enough to slow me down for the corners. Unfortunately though it meant I lost a lot of time and wasn’t able to attack, plus we lost a few seconds in the pit stop which obviously didn’t help either. Most of my race was just following the cars in front and defending from those behind, so not the most enjoyable day nor the most enjoyable result. It’s been a bad weekend, but at least we scored a few points.”

Romain Grosjean, P13, E21-02 “It was always going to be a tough race coming from the back, but it’s still disappointing to miss out on the points. Things were looking good until we switched to the option tyres, but they dropped off far quicker than we expected which forced us to stop again. Sadly that effectively put an end to our race as by that time there was no way back. After a promising start on Friday it’s not been the best weekend, but we had good pace last year at Silverstone so we’ll come back looking to put things right.”

Eric Boullier, Team Principal “Today was certainly character building. On the plus side, Romain drove a measured and mature race through the field and should have finished in the points had we not had to make a second stop, which wasn’t to our original plan. Kimi had a frustrating day, but still scored some points. We couldn’t show the pace we wanted this weekend and will be all the more focused when we get to Silverstone as we are obviously very keen to get our championship challenge back on track.”

The eighth round of the competition takes place at Silverstone on 30th June 2013.