Jump to content
  • Welcome to Midlands Lotus Owners Club (MLOC)

    Register now to gain access to all of our features. Once registered and logged in, you will be able to contribute to this site by submitting your own content or replying to existing content. You'll be able to customize your profile, receive reputation points as a reward for submitting content, while also communicating with other members via your own private inbox, plus much more!

    This message will be removed once you have signed in.

Mark H
Mark H

2013 Italian Grand Prix, Saturday

Kimi Räikkönen qualified in eleventh and Romain Grosjean thirteenth after a disappointing qualifying session at Monza for tomorrow’s Italian Grand Prix. After demonstrating strong pace yesterday, the team was unable to unlock any more speed today as it faced the unique challenge of the low-downforce Autodromo Nazionale Monza.

Kimi Räikkönen, E21-03.

Q: P11, 1:24.610.

FP3: P10, 1:25.120

 

“We were just not fast enough today. We have been suffering a bit all weekend so far and it was the same today. It just isn’t our kind of circuit and layout where we have to run small wings. The car behaved pretty okay but we just didn’t have the downforce to go fast through the corners with our low drag package. Hopefully tomorrow will be a bit better but I’m not expecting any big surprises. In any case we will do the best we can.”

Romain Grosjean, E21-05.

Q: P13, 1:24.848.

FP3: P14, 1:25.499

 

“Today was difficult for us as we had no grip. I was quite surprised at how it went in free practice yesterday, but today was simply a different story. The aerodynamic configuration for Monza isn’t an easy one and it didn’t go the way we would have liked it to go. I hope that we find grip levels for tomorrow and are able to deliver as good a race as we can.”

Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director:

 

How was qualifying for the team?

It wasn’t great and there’s no secret that we couldn’t find the pace we needed from the car here at Monza. It was quite a hit not to make it into the top ten, but Monza is such a distinct challenge that there is often a shake-up in the order of which cars perform well here, which is what we’ve seen today. Eleventh and thirteenth is not where we want to be, and there’s no real solace in seeing another race winning car between us on the grid.

Why did we have pace yesterday but not today?

Where you end on the timesheets on Friday does not mean you’ll end up in the same place on Saturday due to the different programmes being run by each team and a variety of other factors. We weren’t able to unlock more speed out of our car today whereas our rivals did. The lap times are very close here, even with it being a fast track. We simply weren’t fast enough.

What are the strategic permutations tomorrow?

For a dry race we can start on whichever Pirelli compound we choose, as we are not constrained to those we used for our qualifying lap as those in the top ten are constrained. However, the weather forecast does highlight potential for rain which changes everything. We will be looking to the sky tomorrow as eagerly as our rivals.

User Feedback

Recommended Comments

There are no comments to display.



Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Add a comment...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


  • Newbie question

    As the title suggests , a newbie query. I have just bought an S2 Elise , 2007 with the Toyota 1ZZ power unit in ‘ touring spec’. That means electric windows, a radio and , err, not sure what else. Anyway, that is not the subject of the query. The car is blue with a cream interior. The latter I don’t plan to keep. In fact , already bought some equivalent second hand door cards in black and am looking hard at a pair of Corbeau LE seats . So, first part of my query centres on those Corbeau seats. A

    Andy wright
    Andy wright
    General Talk 165

    Using LED projectors in a lotus S2

    Hello guys. I am surprised there is not more on here about using Led Projectors for the dip beam in the US you can get the ORE kit which is still a bit pricy.  I beleve he found a good unit that people can retrofit, and provided the extra brackets to adapt it. Link I am trying some brighter bulbs for now, but do think there must be a reasonably proces solution to go LED with somthing reliable, and fassion our own brackets. I can do CAD and many people will cut seel to a drawing for

    William D8on
    William D8on
    Technical Talk 6

    Learn to repair clamshell myself

    Hi 👋  I have recently brought a damaged exige 430cup and the front clam needs repairs.   I’ve started to repair cars a couple years ago and gaining more confidence to have ago myself. I have never done fibre glass repairs, but wondered if anyone in the midlands can give me some tips on how best to get started?      Thks 

    JDUK
    JDUK
    Technical Talk 3

    Bilstein Repair Service

    Hi A couple of weeks ago my 2008 Elise failed its MOT due to leaking rear Bilstein dampers. A look on elise parts and they were £330 incl Vat each without the springs, so I decided to look at my options and found out that Bilstein offer a rebuild service. Dropped them of at their service centre in Leicester last Monday, picked them up yesterday. £140 incl vat per damper for new seals, pistons, gas and oil plus a degrease so less than half the cost of new ones. Very good

    Badger02
    Badger02
    Technical Talk 16

    Calendar 2025

    It’s arrived !   Great job of the Calender fella’s.  Some excellent photos, well done everyone 👍🏻

    Oakman
    Oakman
    General Talk 5
  • MLOC garage

  • Member Statistics

    4,352
    Total Members
    1,800
    Most Online
    William D8on
    Newest Member
    William D8on
    Joined
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. Terms of Use