Romain Grosjean set the seventh fastest time whilst Kimi Räikkönen suffered a hydraulic issue which prevented him from climbing higher than twelfth during qualifying for tomorrow’s Canadian Grand Prix.

Kimi Räikkönen, E20-03. Q: P12, 1:14.734. FP3: P9, 1:14.997

“Obviously it’s disappointing to go out in Q2 but we had some issues with the differential which meant the car wasn’t handling as it should. When the grid is so tight it makes a big difference not having the car exactly as you like it. Still, we had no issues on the long runs yesterday, we have options to choose from with the tyres, and the warmer weather is definitely suiting us better so hopefully we can put everything right before tomorrow and go from there. The race is where it counts, so let’s see what we can do.”

Romain Grosjean, E20-04. Q: P7, 1:14.645. FP3: P8 1:14.873

“For sure we wanted a bit more from qualifying but this is a tricky circuit to get right, and the big variation between conditions yesterday and today didn’t help. The warmer temperatures definitely suited us more but not quite as well as we thought. The car felt pretty strong but my last run could have been better, which is a shame. Still, making it through to Q3 is never a bad thing and it’s a long race tomorrow. Our car has been quite easy on tyres so far this season and hopefully that could make the difference. Last time I started in P7 we ended up on the podium, so let’s hope it can happen again tomorrow!”

Alan Permane, Director of Trackside Operations:

“Good, but not great...”

How do you assess today’s qualifying performance?

“We had a problem with the hydraulics on Kimi’s car in the session which meant the differential was not working properly, so he did a good job to qualify where he did. Romain went through to the final qualifying session comfortably and then did a really good first timed lap in that session on scrubbed tyres. The new tyres didn’t give him the grip and confidence he expected and his lap on these wasn’t any faster. It’s unusual that we would have a warm-up issue here in these conditions, but we’ll be looking at everything to understand what happened.”

How difficult has it been to read the track here?

“The track was very dirty after yesterday’s rain so we saw a lot of evolution today, though it wasn’t particularly tricky to predict. Having said that we’ve had a little bit more trouble than usual setting the cars up; just finding the right balance with the heavy breaking here, making it comfortable enough into the corner and not having too much understeer mid-corner. Certainly with Romain it’s fair to say that he’s not as comfortable as he normally is with his car”

Could Kimi’s hydraulic problem in qualifying carry over into the race?

“I have no doubt that we’ll resolve Kimi’s issue for tomorrow. We can see the symptoms clearly on the data and we recognised it very early on. We informed Kimi that there was a problem during qualifying. It wasn’t something we could easily remedy during the session but I’m very confident that we’ll find the problem overnight and fix it.”

What are the strategy considerations for tomorrow?

“In terms of strategy we’ll be assessing different options. Tyre degradation is very low here, so we could see a few teams attempt a one stop race. Overtaking is very much possible here with the long straights and the DRS; it won’t be easy by any means but certainly simpler than in Monaco.”

OH CANADA!

Originally known as the Ile Notre Dame Circuit, set on an island in the Saint Lawrence River, it was quickly re-named after the man who won the inaugural race in 1978 – Gilles Villeneuve, one of the bravest (translation: gifted but mental) racers who ever lived.

Check out the futuristic architecture around the island, like that big glass ball thing (technical name: geodesic dome). The place used to be home to the 1967 World Fair.

ON TRACK:

Set upon public roads in a park, the circuit starts the weekend very ‘green’ with about as much grip as a fisherman trying to wrestle an eel into a bag. That means muchos accidents in free practice. The star of the stack show is the outside of the final corner, known as the wall of champions because it’s stamped its authority on the likes of Michael Schumacher, Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve (who sadly never managed to win at his dad’s track).

The characteristics of this track are high speed straights and low speed corners. This may suit McLaren and Mercedes better than the Renault-engined Lotus and Red Bull cars, which have an appetite for flowing corners. Due to the stop-start nature of the layout, gearboxes are put under enormous strain. They experience around 2,000 changes during the 70 lap race. Safety cars are common place here because there’s little run off – even less than Melbourne. That means the result could be a lottery. Last year Jenson Button won the race, yet at one point he was tooling around at the back.

RACE DETAILS:

Local start time: 15h00

Number of laps: 70

Circuit length: 4.361km

Race distance: 305.270km

Lap record: Rubens Barrichello (Ferrari, 2004), 1m13.622

WHAT THE DRIVERS SAY:

Kimi Räikkönen : “I have always liked the Canadian Grand Prix. I won there in 2005 so Montreal has good memories. The city is one of the best places to visit on the calendar. I really enjoy the stop-start nature of the circuit layout and the challenge of the track. To do well in Canada the car needs to be good under braking because it’s very tough on brakes at this circuit. You also make use of the kerbs and our car has been pretty good in this area. It’s also a circuit with different track surfaces and sometimes the surface itself can change over the course of the race weekend. This is interesting as it means different grip levels, so another challenge there. It’s a street course, but there are still places to overtake so you don’t have to change all of your focus to qualifying like you do in Monaco. It is a race that sees a lot of safety cars; there has probably not been a Canadian Grand Prix without having a safety car. Most likely it will happen again. A safety car makes it difficult for the strategy as you can’t predict when it might come. If the safety car is employed, then you have got to hope that it happens at the right time.”

Romain Grosjean: “It will be my first time in Canada so it’s another new experience for me this year. I’m looking forward to it because it’s a track which many drivers have told me they like. It’s also a track which can bite you, and we’ve seen that over the years with the champions’ wall. Even though I’m not a Formula One champion, I’ll be giving that part of the track some respect! Normally I enjoy street circuits – I was right on the pace in Monaco. I enjoy the sensation of being close to the walls. Finally, the weather in Montreal can be quite changeable, as we saw last year. I’m sure it’ll be a challenging and exciting grand prix.”

OFF TRACK:

That story about the man who was crushed beneath a vending machine while trying to shake a Coke can out of it wasn’t an urban myth. His name was Kevin, and he was from Quebec. Gilles Villeneuve and Jim Carrey were/are Canadian too, and their photos are in the dictionary under crazy. It’s important to understand this before embarking on a jet boat tour up the wildest stretches of the Lachine Rapids. For god’s sake wear a life jacket.

It’s said there are all sorts of ghosts, ghouls and spectres haunting the narrow lanes of Old Montreal. Take one of the ghost tours and listen to the creepy stories about child murderers, witches, and kleptos. You can also take a jet boat tour up the St Lawrence and take in a show at the Cirque de Soleil.

Montréal is where this circus arts phenomenon first started. Founder Guy Laliberté is a huge F1 fan. A while back he blew $35m on a 12-day trip to space. With money like that, it’s a surprise he’s not racing for Marussia this year.

After a boutique hotel? The Hotel de l’Institute is actually set on the top floors of the Institut de Tourisme et d’Hôtellerie, where people come from all over the world to study Canadian hospitality. The hotel employs a lot of its own students. Therefore, if you ring reception to say you need an ironing board, bear in mind that they’re in the middle of a dissertation and can’t you just put a towel over the desk and do it?

Montreal’s numero ‘une’ steakhouse, La Queue de Cheval, is hugely popular with drivers and team principals and serves the paddock’s favourite plonk – Jarno Trulli wine. Inside it looks like a gentlemen’s club (no, not the sort Montreal is famous for) with polished dark wood and private dining rooms. Kimi recommends the ribeye.

Au Pied du Cochon - P.D.C, as the local gastros call it - will probably give you a heart attack. But at least you’ll die happy. Their namesake dish, a pig’s foot, is the size of a man’s forearm and is poached, stuffed and roasted in a wood oven. A layer of foie gras is layered over it like a saddle before it comes to your table. Foie gras is in no short supply here. You can have it on a burger, on a pizza, on pancakes or simply with chips. Or go for ‘Duck in a Can’ which does, indeed, come with a can opener.

Indie music is a major force in Canada, and you can judge breakthrough acts at La Sala Rossa, an atmospheric, chandelier-lit gig venue, which used to be a left-wing political centre and once hosted Eleanor Roosevelt. While most of the acts here are unsigned, it has drawn some ‘known’ indie bands such as The Datsuns, British Sea Power, Hot Chip and Arcade Fire – the latter band being Montréal-based, and a frequent sight at this venue. La Sala Rossa cooks up a good paella too, as well as great music.

Jacques Villeneuve: World Champion, singer-songwriter, hair-dye enthusiast, and owner of Montréal’s hottest real estate, Newtown - his (kind of) eponymous resto-bar-club. The basement dance-floor has a colourful disco screen at the back that looks like Canada’s biggest battenburg. If you used to engineer JV’s car you might be offered a free round of drinks. Unless you worked at BAR-Honda. In which case, keep a low profile.

Lotus F1 Team endured a difficult Monaco Grand Prix, with Kimi Räikkönen finishing in ninth position and Romain Grosjean crashing out of the race before the first corner. It was also a difficult race for the strategists with rain looming but never arriving to any significant extent until immediately after the chequered flag fell. Lotus F1 Team are now tied in third position in the Constructors’ Championship with Ferrari.

• Both cars started on used sets of red-marked super soft Pirelli P-Zero tyres.
  
• Kimi changed to a set of new soft tyres on lap 29.
  

Kimi Räikkönen, P9, E20-03

“Ninth was the best we could do today. I didn’t start in a great position and I had some difficulties during the race so it’s not been the easiest weekend, but at least we got a couple of points. It’s better than nothing but not exactly what we wanted. One race doesn’t change the fact that we have been pretty strong everywhere – even here at the beginning of the weekend. This circuit is completely different from any other and I don’t think we should worry too much about the fact that it wasn’t our best weekend. It is what it is – sometimes it doesn’t go the way you expected and now we should look to Canada for a better result.”

Romain Grosjean, DNF, E20-04

“We struggled to get off the line and it looked like Lewis [Hamilton] in front didn’t have the best start either. Fernando [Alonso] pulled alongside him so I was then on the outside of both cars, and unfortunately Michael [schumacher] was on the outside of me as well. There just wasn’t enough room and next thing I’m facing all the traffic after just one hundred metres which wasn’t a nice feeling. It’s a disappointing end to the week after some positive early signs, but that’s racing and now we look forward to Canada and a chance to bounce back.”

Eric Boullier, Team Principal

"We arrived in Monaco after two consecutive podiums and did not really know what to expect at such a unique circuit. Before qualifying it was obvious that the E20 was going to be competitive, but things did not go as planned. Our positions on the grid did not reflect our true pace and that put us on the back foot for the rest of the weekend. Unfortunately Romain’s race ended prematurely after contact with Michael Schumacher, and like the Stewards I think it was a racing incident. With Kimi, we knew that fighting for a podium was going to be more than difficult. It then became obvious that we were struggling with our tyres when the temperature fell. The grip was just not there and we could only defend our position. In the end, the two points we’ve scored today are disappointing but because the field is so tight we have not lost too much ground on our opponents. We have the same number of points as Ferrari in the constructors’ championship, while Kimi is 25 points away from Fernando Alonso who’s leading the drivers’ classification. Anything can still happen and the championship is wide open. We’re now looking forward to Montreal, the first low downforce track of the season, where the E20 should be strong. Finally, I wish to congratulate the team for all their hard work this weekend. Our 500th was not one of our best, but I hope the 501st is!”

James Allison, Technical Director

“We’ve had five races so far this season where we’ve shown strongly. Sadly, at the sixth we were not on the pace. It was a completely joyless experience from start to finish. Romain has been metronomic this weekend, but he was out of the race before the first corner which was a massive blow to our hopes for today. Kimi had an okay start, but wasn’t able to keep the car running at a challenging pace once the sheen came off his tyres after ten or fifteen laps. We stayed out longer than we would have done otherwise on the first set of super soft tyres as we, and everyone else, were waiting for rain to come. Now we have to pick ourselves up and come back in Canada to bring both cars home in strong placings.”

Ricardo Penteado, Renault Sport F1 Team Support Leader

“We worked hard to deliver good drive and response over the lower rev ranges to deal with the low average speed of the Monaco track. The package has been quick this weekend, which was reflected in the qualifying positions, but Romain was very unlucky to be involved in the accident at the start. Ninth place for Kimi is a bit frustrating and not reflective of the general level of performance we have shown at this event.”

Romain Grosjean qualified in P5 whilst Kimi Räikkönen set the eighth fastest time in qualifying for tomorrow’s Monaco Grand Prix. Romain gains a position on the grid due to a five position penalty for fastest man today, Michael Schumacher. Qualifying was exceptionally close, with all nine cars setting a time within a second of pole in Q3.

Kimi Räikkönen, E20-03. Q: P8, 1:15.199 FP3: P12, 1:16.301

“For sure we’re not very happy after that session. Since the first practice we’ve been a little bit behind where we should have been and we’ve been trying to catch-up. The car is fine, the biggest problem today was trying to get the tyres working as it seemed to be a bit tricky to get them up to temperature. I could have been a bit faster on my best lap, but I went a little bit too deep in the swimming pool section. It’s a bit disappointing but you can’t get it right every time. At a normal race track you would be able to gain positions through overtaking, but in Monaco this is difficult. That said, anything can happen here so hopefully we can achieve something good tomorrow.”

Romain Grosjean, E20-04. Q: P5, 1:14.639 FP3: P5 1:15.445 (will start from P4)

“We are not as high on the grid as we wanted to be, but things were very tight today. I did a very good lap in the first part of Q3 but then I couldn’t improve on my second set of tyres. This was a shame because our strategy was perfect for the last part of qualifying. The traffic wasn’t too bad but I missed out in sector two. I think pole position was within reach. P4 is not exactly where we wanted to be but the race will be long. It’s Monaco, it will be difficult; nonetheless we know that the car is quite good on high fuel and with the tyres, so let’s see what we can do and put the best strategy into place.”

Alan Permane, Director of Trackside Operations:

“We’ve got it all to do...”

How do you assess today’s qualifying performance?

“Disappointing. After the pace we saw in the car on Thursday and this morning we expected better. Monaco is a very difficult place to get everything exactly right on a lap and the penalties for making a mistake were seen elsewhere in qualifying, but nevertheless we thought we were a realistic prospect for a front row here so to miss out is a bitter pill to swallow.”

What are the strategy considerations for the race?

“Overtaking is notoriously difficult here due to the narrow and twisty confines of the track. No matter what the tyre performance or the presence of DRS, KERS or any other factor, a slower car can hold up a faster car for a long time here. Our best opportunity for a strong race result is for Thursday afternoon’s rain to return or for there to be an eventful race to mix up the order.We will of course spend a long time looking at what we can do strategically as the E20 is generally easy on it’s tyres. Also Monaco can often throw up many surprises.so the podium is by no means out of reach”

Did missing FP1 affect Kimi’s performance?

“We certainly can’t say it helped him. Kimi struggled to get sufficient heat in his tyres today, even with the super soft compound, so he didn’t feel he had sufficient grip to push harder. He needed one more set of super softs than Romain to get into Q3, so consequently had one fewer set than Romain in that session.”

Romain has looked very strong so far this weekend; was there more possible in qualifying?

“Romain lost out in the second sector on his fastest lap and we will be looking to understand what went wrong. When you look at his times all through the weekend, and consider the track evolution, his qualifying lap was short of what we thought possible. But still, it’s not a bad effort for a first F1 qualifying here.”

On the plus side?

“We do have both cars in the top ten which is good for our Constructors’ Championship points potential. McLaren in second in the standings ahead of us have one car outside of the top ten so we have scope to do well against them, but equally it’s a very close field.”

Kimi Räikkönen and Romain Grosjean ensured that Lotus F1 Team were the strongest points scoring team in a fast-paced Spanish Grand Prix, finishing in third and fourth position to move the team within 14 points of second place in the Constructors’ Championship.

• Both cars started on used sets of yellow-marked soft Pirelli P-Zero tyres.
  
• Romain changed to a set of used softs on lap 10, then made two further stops for new silver-marked hard tyres on laps 26 and 51.
  
• Kimi pitted for a set of used softs on lap 11, then fresh sets of hards on laps 27 and 48.
  

Kimi Räikkönen, P2, E20-03

“I had a very good start and had a chance to overtake on the outside, but we did not have enough speed and I hit the limiter in fifth gear. I am a bit disappointed because if everything had gone right in the first part of the race, we could have won. There was no issue with the speed of the car, but it is so close between all the teams that if you have a small problem or a small issue it can cost so much. Our car can do it, but everything has to fall into the right place to be able to get on to the top step. My first stint was okay, but I didn’t have the speed to stay with the cars in front. We changed the tyres and it seemed to be pretty good, but we were too far away. At the end we needed a few more laps and we could have fought for the win. We’re not far away from it and so far we’ve made good steps forwards; the car feels strong everywhere.”

Romain Grosjean, P3, E20-04, Fastest lap of the race: 1:26.250 (Lap 53, hard tyres)

“We lost position at the start and with it a bit of front wing too! It was cooler today which didn’t suit us so much. Despite this, I am very happy with P4 especially when you look at yesterday where I missed all of the final practice session. Both cars finishing strongly in the points is great for the team. It was pretty difficult for me at the start of the race as it was hard to get the front working properly with the wing damaged, but we made some changes and at the end of the race the car was really flying. I think we made the right decisions today; if you told us we could finish third and fourth at the beginning of the weekend we’d have taken it.”

Eric Boullier, Team Principal

"It’s a very strong result and it’s a great reward for the team today. I think we can expect a stronger season than we had last year and we need to carry on scoring points as we have in the last two races. I’m sure a win could arrive at some point this season. After qualifying you build expectations, and we could have expected after the strong race pace we had in Bahrain that we could have done the same here, but it was not the case. A race incident at the start didn’t help Romain, but the pace of both drivers at the end of the race illustrated our potential. Finally, we must say congratulations to the Williams team for their win, and we hope no-one was seriously hurt in the post-race incident in their pits.”

Alan Permane, Director of Trackside Operations

“Third and fourth is a really good result for the team and it meant a big points haul here – more than any other team this weekend – which helps us to close up hugely on second place in the standings. Of course, it would have been nice to have done better, but the key to a strong championship campaign is consistency and if we can finish third and fourth in every race this season we’ll be very happy. We didn’t have the pace to win today, that much was clear after the first stints. We tried to push our stints out and be quick at the end. We were, and it nearly paid off.”

Ricardo Penteado, Renault Sport F1 Team Support Leader

“It was a great race with another podium and fourth position to move us a lot closer to second in the championship. We introduced new engines after Friday practice and it went well. We managed the fuel consumption effectively on both cars in the race, but in Romain’s we had some engine air consumption in the middle stint. Congratulations to Pastor and our Renault colleagues working at Williams today – a well deserved win.”

Romain Grosjean qualified in P4 whilst Kimi Räikkönen set the fifth fastest time under blue skies and light clouds in qualifying for tomorrow’s Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Catalunya

Kimi Räikkönen, E20-03. Q: P5, 1:22.487. FP3: P9, 1:23.936

“I think we had a chance to be in the top three but we’ve been fighting with the set-up quite a bit today. We changed the car for qualifying and actually it was the correct call in the end; it was just a few small mistakes which cost me some time on my Q3 lap. We’ll see how it goes tomorrow in the race; the car has usually been better on Sunday than it has been on Saturday, so if that’s the case tomorrow we’ll be pretty happy. A lot of small details will decide the race and the tyres are one aspect of course. Our long runs were promising yesterday, so we’re not looking too bad. Hopefully we get a reasonable start and we can be up at the right end and go for it. I think we’ve got a good car and that’s the main thing.”

Romain Grosjean, E20-04. Q: P4, 1:22.424. FP3: N/A

“It was a good performance from the team, especially as I didn’t run in FP3 because of a fuel pressure problem. For the set-up we went from what we’d found out yesterday and it worked pretty well. Everyone did a good job to get the car ready for qualifying after the problems of the morning. We can be happy with what we have achieved – of course you always want more but this is the result for today. I think that I could have been a little bit quicker, not too much more. Tomorrow is going to be long; our race pace did not look too bad but, of course, we’ll have to manage tyre degradation.”

Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director:

“Today went relatively smoothly for us…”

How do you assess today’s qualifying performance?

“Today went relatively smoothly for us. In Q3 I think we could have had a little bit more from both drivers’ laps. For Romain in particular – after missing this morning’s practice – it was an exceptional effort. Having the hard and soft tyres as opposed to two compounds which sit alongside each other (the medium and soft used in Bahrain for example) meant we had to approach qualifying differently as we all needed the softer tyre to progress through Q1, limiting the number of soft tyres available for the next two sessions. We saw different approaches to this; we’ll have to see in the race whose was correct.”

How are we looking for the race?

“Our long run pace yesterday looked good so we can be reasonably confident heading into the race. Our target for today was to get both cars into the top six; we’ve got both in the top five so let’s try and exceed expectations once again tomorrow.”

What are we thinking for tyre strategy heading into tomorrow?

“We used three sets of soft tyres to go through qualifying, but we have two new sets of the hard compound Pirelli tyres. We are very flexible on tyre strategy for tomorrow and we’ll be spending a lot of time now looking at all the possible permutations. There’s certainly no clear solution shouting out at us at this stage, so we have a lot of number crunching to do. We’ll be starting both cars on scrubbed soft tyres, after that it is still to be decided.”

Kimi Räikkönen and Romain Grosjean took to the track for the first practice sessions of the fifth round of the 2012 Formula 1 World Championship at the Circuit de Catalunya today in hot and dry conditions. The Lotus F1 Team drivers ended the sessions with the fifth and sixth fastest lap times of the day.

Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director - Technical programme notes

• In FP1 we conducted aerodynamic evaluations, in particular of our different front wing specifications and also the latest floor modifications using the hard compound Pirelli tyre.
  
• FP2 saw heavy fuel running, focusing on the long run race performance of the hard and soft compound tyres.
  

What we learned today:

• Our lower fuel set-up changes have been validated following developments tested in Mugello.
  
• The base set-up for the car works well with no surprisess.
  

Kimi Räikkönen, E20-03

Free practice 1: P9, 1:25.285, 29 laps

Free practice 2: P5, 1:23.918, 32 laps

Kimi:

“There were no problems with the car and everything felt good today. We tried a different front wing, but in the car you can’t tell if it makes much difference; that is why the team’s engineers are looking at the data. I felt comfortable and I think the work done at Mugello and in the Windshear test programme have made improvements. We’ll have to see tomorrow how much pace everyone has when it comes to qualifying as that’s when it matters. We’ve been fast everywhere else so far and there’s nothing to suggest we won’t be fast here again.”

Romain Grosjean, E20-04

Free practice 1: P7, 1:25.217, 16 laps

Free practice 2: P6, 1:23.964, 37 laps

Romain:

“It was a pretty good day today. The weather is fantastic, the car feels great and the lap times were promising; I’m a happy man. The balance felt strong on both tyres and we were able to complete long runs to give us valuable tyre data for Sunday. I’m happy with the performance of the car even when the tyres are nearer the end of their performance life which is a good sign for this weekend. It’s very close of course, so qualifying will be interesting. I can’t wait for tomorrow to come.”

Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director:

“The car looks to be working very well and we’re happy with progress. Our long runs on the softer tyres gave us good data for the race in terms of degradation and how many laps they can last before the performance drops away significantly. From this we’ve had an initial look at our pit stop strategy for Sunday. There were no problems from either car and both drivers were pretty happy with things. Some of work in Mugello concentrated on how we run the cars on lower fuel levels which is reflected by our better lap time performance on a Friday than we’ve seen at some other races.”

Lotus F1 Team has harnessed the commercial pull of a promising start to the 2012 season with a new sponsorship deal seeing the Interwetten.com name on the team’s cars as well as further branding locations. Representatives from Interwetten.com will also be introduced to Lotus F1 Team’s growing portfolio of partners.

Patrick Louis, Chief Executive Officer, Lotus F1 Team:

"It’s been a fantastic start to the 2012 season for us in both commercial and performance terms. We have received a lot of focus because of our driver line-up and performance on track, as well as the potential these two factors have highlighted. Interwetten.com joins us at a perfect time to gain maximum potential for their brand. We are making good moves on the track, which gain the attention of the world’s media. This is exactly what Interwetten.com want from our partnership. We are striving to deliver the very best performance on track which in turn gives Interwetten.com and all our partners the greatest exposure and return on their investment."

Birgit Bosch, Chief Operating Officer, Interwetten.com:

"Becoming involved in Formula 1 is the logical continuation of the excellent collaboration between Interwetten.com and Lotus in World Series by Renault 3.5. We’re very proud to be associated with such a well-known brand as Lotus F1 Team, at such an exciting time in their history. We respect the innovative way they go about their competition and promotion; they are certainly the most exciting team in Formula 1 at the moment. Lotus F1 Team is a great bet for any company and we stand to receive far more than our sponsorship stake in terms of brand exposure. The odds for a victory from the team are certainly going down at the moment and we want to be on board for continuing podium performances from the team."

Lotus F1 Team completed the final day of testing at the Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello in Italy this afternoon, with Romain Grosjean the fastest driver of the day. His best lap of 1min 21.035secs was also the fastest time of the three day test.

Fast facts:

• Track: Mugello, Italy, 5.25km
  
• Chassis: E20-02
  
• Weather: Cloudy with sunshine, air 14-24°C, track 15-30°C
  
• Programme: Aerodynamic work, setup work, suspension configuration & evaluation, high and medium fuel runs, data collection and correlation
  
• Laps Completed: 66
  
• Classification: 1st, 1:21.035
  
• Interruptions: Red flags – no issues for the team
  
• What’s next? The team heads to the Circuit de Catalunya for the Spanish Grand Prix on May 11-13.
  

Romain Grosjean, Lotus F1 Team Race Driver:

“It was another nice day today so I have been lucky with the weather here. We continued to work on the car and have gained more valuable data. We made a big change to the car at lunchtime and everything went according to plan. Mugello puts high demands on the driver so it’s been a very good experience for me – and quite a workout! We were conducting a specific programme of evaluating components, so to be quick relative to our opposition even when we were not looking specifically to try to top the times is satisfying. I’m happy at the progress we’ve made here in Italy and looking forward to seeing how well this translates into lap time when we get to Barcelona.”

Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director:

“After looking at the data from yesterday, we ran further back-to-back tests on our suspension configurations. Track conditions were better today as a result of yesterday’s running. We stopped early for lunch so that we could change the suspension and be out running straight away in the afternoon session. In the afternoon we also assessed some new floor updates applicable for Barcelona, as well as a rear suspension update fitted late in the day. After the rain on the first day, it’s been a valuable two dry days of testing. Mugello is quite hard on the tyres; not in terms of degradation, but through the high speed loadings generating heat. This has taught us some interesting lessons applicable to the rest of the season. Mugello is also an excellent circuit for doing aerodynamic evaluation, so it has been time well spent here.”

Lotus F1 Team set the pace at the second day of testing at the Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello in Italy, with a time of 1min 21.603s set by Romain Grosjean early in the morning session being the lap to beat. It was equalled late in the day, but never bettered.

Fast facts:

Track: Mugello, Italy, 5.25km

Chassis: E20-02

Weather: Glorious sunshine, clouds, air 14-25°C, track 15-37°C

Programme: Aerodynamic work, setup work, high and medium fuel runs, data collection and correlation, sun appreciation

Laps Completed: 97

Classification: 1st, 1:21.603

Interruptions: Red flags – no issues for team

What's next? Romain Grosjean will take to the wheel of the E20 tomorrow for the final day at Mugello.

Romain Grosjean, Lotus F1 Team Race Driver:

"It's always good to end the day on top, but we have to remember that in testing lap times mean very little. Having said that, the car felt great and I was very comfortable from the start. This test gives us an opportunity to try things that we wouldn't have time to do during a race weekend, so hopefully it'll help us to keep pushing forward. We've done a lot of setup work today, and for sure we'll need to take some time to look through all the data and analyse what we need to focus on tomorrow, but it's a good baseline for the final day."

Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director:

"Romain was very happy with the car straight away. We made a couple of minor balance adjustments to fine tune it for him after Jérôme's running yesterday and then went into our test programme. Today we were concentrating on different suspension setups, so we had a fairly major change over lunch which took a couple of hours. We've got some good data from this which we'll need to sit down and assess tonight to decide what our strategy will be for tomorrow; i.e. whether we re-test or stick with what we've got. The car is working very well here; we've run a variety of medium and high fuel loads as we would at a race weekend to assess the effects of the suspension change, and we're pleased with what we've seen. Overall, a positive day."

Lotus F1 Team completed only morning session running due to inclement weather on the first of three days testing at the delightfully located Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello in Italy. Jérôme D’Ambrosio sampled the E20 for the first time, completing 40 trouble free laps. Because of today’s weather-induced reduced running, Romain Grosjean will drive for the next two days - contrary to the original plan of Kimi Räikkönen running tomorrow and Romain only on Thursday - due to the uncertain weather predictions for the next two days.

Fast facts:

• Track: Mugello, Italy, 5.25km
  
• Chassis: E20-02
  
• Weather: Raining with dry spells, air 16-24°C, track 17-27°C
  
• Programme: Aerodynamic work, sensor measurement work, intermediate tyre running, medium slick tyre running, rain contemplation.
  
• Laps Completed: 40
  
• Classification: 4th, 1’24"048
  
• Interruptions: Rain and red flags.
  
• What’s next? Romain Grosjean will take to the wheel of the E20 for the next two days at Mugello.
  

Jérôme D’Ambrosio, Lotus F1 Team Third Driver:

“It was great to finally get my hands on the E20 and I’d like to thank the team again for giving me this opportunity. It’s a fantastic car and I felt confident with it straight away, especially in the dry. It’s a real shame we’ve been limited by the weather today in terms of what we could achieve, but we had known for a few days that rain was forecast so it’s not a big shock. We managed to complete 20 laps in both wet and dry conditions which gives me a good knowledge of the car and will help me be a better asset to the team with this experience.”

Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director:

“It was not the most ideal day, but in spite of the weather we managed to get some useful laps on the board. Of course, it was the first taste of the E20 for Jérôme who was very happy with the car including his seating position and all the controls. This is important, as it means he will be much better prepared if called upon again further into the season. The mixed conditions, running intermediates to start and then switching to the medium compound slicks, also gives us a good base line for Romain over the next two days. We’ve opted for one driver for the next two days so we can make better use of the time after losing this afternoon’s running.”

James Allison, Technical Director:

“We had a busy programme lined up for Jérôme including a fair amount of aerodynamic work, sensor measurement work and of course preparing foundations for Romain over the next two days. We’ve been able to do some of that work in the limited dry running that was available, but there is now a lot more we need to fit in to Wednesday and Thursday. The important thing is we now have base line to build on, so the next two days should be much more productive.”

Jérôme will drive for the first day of the test, followed by team race drivers Kimi Räikkönen and Romain Grosjean on the second and third days respectively.

Eric Boullier, Team Principal:

“Jérôme has been very patiently attending all the races and has been a conscientious and regular visitor to Enstone since he was announced as our third driver. It’s clear he has been very eager to get behind the wheel and it will be invaluable for us as a team that he gets this opportunity. We have given him a full day to get to grips with the E20, and look forward to receiving his feedback from the test. We had a good result in Bahrain, but as always we need to keep pushing forward. Mugello will give us an opportunity to try out a few new parts and hopefully make another step forward.”

Jérôme D’Ambrosio:

“It’s an amazing opportunity for me, and I’d like to thank Lotus F1 Team for giving me the chance to experience the E20; it’s a great car and I can’t wait to drive it. I know the team from my rookie day in Abu Dhabi in 2010, and I’ve felt very comfortable at Enstone this year which I’m sure will be a big help. Kimi and Romain needed time in the car during the winter after two years away, so the fact that this test has been put on the calendar after the first four races of the season gives me an opportunity to drive. It will be very valuable for me to get back into a Formula 1 car after 6 months, which has felt like quite a while. I’ve said all along that a third driver position with a top team would be much better for my career this year, and I’m starting to see the benefits of that strategy. I’ve learnt a lot so far with Lotus F1 Team, and this is just the beginning.”

Both cars started on the yellow-marked soft Pirelli P-Zero.

Romain changed to a set on mediums on lap 10, then made two further stops for more mediums on laps 25 and 40.

Kimi pitted for a set of softs on lap 11, then fresh sets of mediums on laps 24 and 39.

Drivers’ Championship:

Kimi Räikkönen, P7 (34 Points)

Romain Grosjean, P8 (23 Points)

Constructors’ Championship:

Lotus F1 Team, P3 (57 Points)

Kimi Räikkönen, P2, E20-03

Fastest Lap, 1:37.116 (Lap 41)

“It’s a great result for the team and we deserve it as everyone has been working very hard. To be honest, I’m slightly disappointed we didn’t take the win because we had the pace. I only had one chance to overtake Sebastian (Vettel) and unfortunately I chose the wrong side to try and get past. If I hadn’t made a small mistake at the start and allowed Felipe (Massa) to get through then maybe it would have been a different story, as we spent quite a lot of time fighting with him. At the end of the day, it’s good to have both cars on the podium, especially after last race which didn’t go to plan, but I honestly think we could have taken the victory today.”

Romain Grosjean, P3, E20-04

Fastest Lap, 1:36.928 (Lap 42)

“It’s a great feeling to get my first podium, and I’m really proud of the whole team for doing an incredible job today. We’ve known all season how quick the car can be, but with such a tight field any small mistakes can make a huge difference. Today I think we got everything right, and we’ve finally been able to prove how competitive we are. Last week I was aiming for my first points, this week I was hoping for top five, but here we are on the podium so who knows where we can go from here! We can be very happy with what we’ve achieved today; hopefully we can now head to the Mugello test and find that last bit of to push us right to the top.”

Eric Boullier, Team Principal

"It was a great team performance today and I’m delighted for everyone, both here in the paddock and back at Enstone. The first three races were very frustrating, as we knew we were capable of a result like this. Until now, small details have hindered our performance, so it’s almost a relief to finally show what we are capable of. We took a bit of a gamble on strategy and I’m pleased to say it paid off. Both drivers put in a fantastic performance, and to have two cars not just on the podium but so closely matched all through the race demonstrates what a strong line-up we have. I’m immensely proud of what we’ve achieved today."

Alan Permane, Director of Trackside Operations

“We’ve been saying over the last few races that podium finishes were on their way and today we’ve proved that. To come from eleventh to score a strong second, challenging for the win was an awesome performance from Kimi and shows that the E20 is a superb race car. For Romain to match Kimi’s pace and finish just seven seconds behind him despite having fewer new tyres is a comparably impressive performance. Our race strategy calls today were not as tricky as we’ve seen in other races. We knew we had to make three stops and it became clear as the race went on that our main question was could we beat Sebastian (Vettel)? We gave it a good go. It wasn’t a perfect performance this weekend - we weren’t happy with our performance on the soft tyres in qualifying – but it’s clear we have a car which has the pace to win races. ”

Kimi Räikkönen, E20-03. Q: P11, 1:33.789. FP3: P7, 1:33.976.

“We had the speed today and we could easily have gone through to the final session with another run, but we thought it was worth taking the risk to only do one lap in Q2 and save fresh sets of tyres for the race. Managing the tyres will be a priority tomorrow, so while it was a gamble that didn’t get us through to the final session it will hopefully be a strategy which pays off in the race. We knew it was going to be close and of course we always want to be as high up the grid as possible, but there were two options and we went for the one which we believe will deliver the best result on Sunday. There are no points given out on Saturday, so let’s see what happens tomorrow.”

Romain Grosjean, E20-04. Q: P7, 1:33.008. FP3: P9, 1:34.401.

“It was a good result for the team. We’ve now got through to Q3 at every race weekend this season and that’s always satisfying. I think we can be pleased with how the car is working. If I hadn’t made a small mistake on my flying lap we could maybe be even further up the order. It’s a big contrast here to the conditions we saw in China, and I think we can be proud of how well we’ve adapted to that change as it makes finding the right setup a big challenge. Today we were maybe a bit further behind the leaders than we’d like, but our race pace looks good and it’s another close grid so tomorrow should be very interesting.”

Alan Permane, Director of Trackside Operations:

“It’s going to be a long hot race...”

How do you assess today’s qualifying performance?

“We’re a little bit disappointed with our pace on the soft tyre and we need to assess where we lost out on speed as we didn’t achieve what we thought would be possible with Romain in Q3. Kimi’s pace was comparable to Romain’s and with another set of tyres he could have gone through to Q3.Tomorrow will be all about tyre degradation, so we took the risk not to run Kimi a second time in the Q2 session in order to save tyres. Unfortunately, he was pipped out of the top ten at the last moment. We knew it was a risk not running him again, but the performance penalty of not making Q3 was is not as great as it could have been due to the benefits of the fresh tyres saved for the race.”

How does Kimi’s P11 starting position look when assessing the race strategies?

“It’s better to be starting in P11 with four new sets of tyres available for the race than further up the grid with fewer new sets. Kimi’s in a strong position and there is the potential for a good result. We are capable of running for the entire race with only new tyres and the performance benefits that brings.”

Did you expect better from Romain’s qualifying performance?

“Romain did a great job in Q1 on the prime tyre, but his pace wasn’t quite there with his initial run in Q2 on the soft tyre so we ran him again. In Q3 he made a slight mistake which probably cost around two tenths, and the grid is very close out there.”

What is the difference between the two tyre specifications here?

“We’re seeing around 6-8 tenths, although it appears that some of our rivals are able to extract a bit more pace from the soft tyre than we are. This is not so much of an issue for the race, as we are confident in our long run pace.”

Thoughts for tomorrow?

“It’s going to be a long hot race tomorrow. There’s potential for high tyre degradation and it’s a physical race for the drivers because of the heat. Anything is possible.”

Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director - Technical programme notes

• In FP1 we evaluated our modified new floor and front wing, exclusively using the medium compound tyre.
  
• FP2 saw heavy fuel running, focusing on the long run performance of the medium and soft compound tyres.
  

What we learned today

• Tyre degradation potential is significant with both tyre compounds.
  
• We are in reasonable shape looking at our degradation and pace.
  

Kimi Räikkönen, E20-03

Free practice 1: P9, 1:34.609, 18 laps

Free practice 2: P13, 1:35.183, 33 laps

Kimi:

“The soft tyres felt better today but we have to work out which tyre will work best over a stint duration. It’s too early to draw any conclusion and we have to look at the data. At the moment, it doesn’t look like the difference will be night and day. The track conditions were surprisingly good straight away in first practice today, and it didn’t feel like a massive difference in the second session. Hopefully the wind does not get up overnight and blow sand on to the track. Tyre degradation should be interesting. There are things you can do as a driver to minimise this, but you can do more with the set-up of the car. I hope we find a good solution.”

Romain Grosjean, E20-04

Free practice 1: P10, 1:34.847, 20 laps

Free practice 2: P9, 1:34.615, 32 laps

Romain:

“This season so far we’ve been from quite cool temperatures in Australia to hot weather in Malaysia, reasonably cool in China and then hot again here in Bahrain. This variation makes it difficult for the team to set up the car, as you’re working with different conditions and therefore spend most of the practice sessions adjusting things to match. We now have a much better idea of how the car behaves and hopefully this will lead to a good performance in qualifying tomorrow. I think we can be quite happy with our day’s work; we ran through the full programme as planned and got some decent mileage under our belts. We’ve made a big improvement from where we were this time last week in China; I’m feeling confident on long runs and tomorrow we’ll be pushing hard to get the best single lap pace as well.”

James Allison, Technical Director:

“There’s a pattern emerging over the first four races where it seems that the programme we run on a Friday is different from that run by other teams, so you can’t draw too many conclusions merely from looking at our position on the timing monitors. The key for this weekend’s race will be making the tyres work in the heat and we’re encouraged by our pace using both tyres with both cars on high fuel today. We ran comparisons of our upgrade components and we have plenty of data to make an assessment.”

Both cars started on the yellow-marked soft Pirelli P-Zero and used a further two sets of mediums.

Romain pitted on laps 11 and 32.

Kimi pitted on laps 10 and 28.

Kimi ran in P2 for laps 41-47. Romain ran in P2 for laps 29-31.

Kimi Räikkönen, P14, E20-03

“We tried to run two stops as it looked to be the fastest strategy and up until the last ten laps it was looking good, but we ran out of tyre performance at the end. I was stuck behind Felipe (Massa) for quite a while and couldn’t get past as I wasn’t fast enough in the right parts of the track to make a move. Even if I’d got past I don’t think it would have made the greatest amount of difference to the final result. We had good pace in the race, we tried a different strategy and it didn’t pay off today; it’s as simple as that.”

Romain Grosjean, P6, E20-04

“It was a very good race, I really enjoyed it. Unfortunately I made a little mistake fighting with Mark (Webber) but overall it was a good performance. The car felt great and the team did an amazing job to give us such a big improvement from Friday, so I’m especially happy for the guys to be able to finish the race and get some good points on the board. To be up there fighting with McLaren and Red Bull is a great feeling and I’m happy to have got my season started properly. We’ve had high hopes since P3 on the grid in Melbourne, and now after a few setbacks it’s time to aim higher. There’s always room to improve and hopefully from here we can aim for the top five and eventually podiums. We’ll take things step by step but I’m feeling confident for the rest of the season ahead.”

Eric Boullier, Team Principal

"It is getting more frustrating for us as we are clearly very close to achieving a very good result. Twelve laps before the end of today’s race we had one car in P2 and one car in P5 with no more pit stops to go. Unfortunately, we were a little bit too aggressive with our strategy. As soon as we understood some cars were doing three stops it was clear there was potential for us to finish on the podium, but we were not expecting the tyre wear to be as high as it was. For Romain the strategy worked; for Kimi it did not. The positives from this weekend are that we continue to show good qualifying and race pace with the E20, and we were capable of fighting for a podium finish with Kimi. Also, it was a very good first full race for Romain. One slow stop and one mistake when fighting with Mark (Webber) for position meaning he ran on the marbles cost him two positions. He recovered very well from this and his pace was very consistent."

Alan Permane, Director of Trackside Operations

“Ten laps before the end of the race, Kimi’s tyres were nearing the end of their life and unfortunately he got on the marbles when Sebastian (Vettel) passed. That was the end of his race effectively as he lost ten places over the course of a lap. We’ll dissect the data and see if a three stop would have been better for us, but everything before the race suggested a two-stop was the way to go, and this approach benefitted Romain. Without the gamble we took with Kimi we wouldn’t have been running in second position so that was the risk we took. I’m happy for Romain to finish his first race of the season. To go from tenth to sixth - racing with the cars of the calibre he was - showed a measured performance so it looks good for the future. We’ve learn a lot this weekend and hopefully we head to Bahrain with an improved car and better understanding of this year’s tyres.”

Ricardo Penteado, Renault Sport F1 Team Support Leader

“Congratulations to Romain on his first points of the season. It was a shame that Kimi could not get a double points finish, but the speed of the package is fundamentally there. Engine-wise we’ve had a trouble free weekend, which is always positive at this type of track where the unit gets a workout over the entire rev range. Driveability through the slow corners was good and the top speed was reasonable, which allowed Romain to defend his position in the closing laps from the Williams and get some decent points for the team today.”

Kimi Räikkönen, E20-03. Q: P5*, 1:35.898. FP3: P10, 1:37.061. *Starts from P4.

“The grid position is okay but when you look at the times, I’m disappointed with the pace of the car today. We’ve gained a position after Lewis’s penalty but the speed wasn’t where it should have been, especially when you look at the pole time. We’ve tried some updates this weekend, but they haven’t worked as we wanted so we’ve gone back to how the car was before. We go into the race less confident in the car than in the last two races, but knowing that we start from a higher position on the grid. Let’s see what we can do tomorrow, we’ll try to do the best we can and hopefully we can be higher up than we are on the grid, and that means a podium.”

Romain Grosjean, E20-04. Q: P10, no time. FP3: P12 1:37.274.

“I have mixed feelings after today’s session. After struggling a bit yesterday it’s great to have both cars in Q3, but unfortunately after a terrible first run in Q2 we were forced to use up all our new sets of soft tyres before the final session. This meant there was no point trying to set a competitive time in the pole position shoot out which is a real shame, as our pace in Q2 was good. I feel much more comfortable with the car and I think that shows in the lap times today. The team did a great job to turn things around and get us back towards the top where we should be. I still have some fine tuning to do but 56 laps in tomorrow’s race will certainly help that!”

Alan Permane, Director of Trackside Operations:

“It should be interesting...”

Both drivers in the top ten again, are we happy with today’s performance?

“Kimi is where the car should be and I think he’s reasonably happy with his performance. He did an excellent job through qualifying and considering the build up of this weekend I think we can be reasonably happy. Romain’s absolute pace is very similar to Kimi’s but qualifying is hungry for tyres if you can’t get the pace straight away. Kimi got through to Q3 with just one set of soft tyres, but Romain required three sets, meaning he then didn’t have a fresh set for his Q3 lap. Romain’s got the pace, we just need to unlock that pace on the hard tyre in a qualifying situation.”

Why didn’t Romain set a time in Q3?

“As he didn’t have a new set of soft tyres, it was always going to be a tough ask to get a blinding lap in the final session, especially as everyone else who got through to Q3 did have a new set. It was unrealistic to expect Romain to qualify higher than tenth in this scenario, but we sent him out anyway. We soon saw from the split times that there was no possibility we brought him in to save a lap on the tyres for the race.”

What’s the assessment of the weekend so far?

“We brought a new update package for the car and we weren’t convinced by a large part of it yesterday. This meant we reverted almost entirely to our Malaysia specification which is why we have missed out on potential pace from the car. We hope to get all the new elements working soon.”

P4 on the grid is Kimi’s best starting position, what can be done from there?

“We have to take every race as it comes, but we’ve certainly seen that we’ve raced more strongly so far than the two Mercedes ahead of us, but that said we were a long way off the pole time, so they are clearly looking very strong. I’d like to think we can take the race to the other cars around us. We’re confident in our starts and our tyre wear and race pace. It should be interesting.”

Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director - Technical programme notes

• In FP1 we completed limited running due to the inclement track conditions.
  
• Both drivers completed the majority of running in the first session with Pirelli’s intermediate tyre as we evaluated new parts.
  
• FP2 saw heavy fuel running, evaluating the medium and soft compound tyres.
  

What we learned today:

• Track temperature was colder than expected meaning the car did not handle as predicted.
  
• We saw understeer from both cars, possibly symptomatic of the cool temperatures.
  

Kimi Räikkönen, E20-03

Free practice 1: P24, 1:50.465, 11 laps

Free practice 2: P13, 1:37.836, 30 laps

Kimi:

“It’s not often that you have a perfect car on Friday and there are certain things we have to improve. To be honest, it doesn’t matter if you are the slowest car on Friday if you are fast for the rest of the weekend. We now just need to look at the information and change the usual things on the car to improve it. We’re aiming for better results than what we’ve achieved from the last two weekends. For sure, we have some work to do on the car. We tried some different things with the set-up today so we have some information to look at, and we know there are certain areas where we have to improve.”

Romain Grosjean, E20-04

Free practice 1: P17, 1:41.204, 14 laps

Free practice 2: P14, 1:37.972, 26 laps

Romain:

“We had strange conditions this morning and a little bit of a difficult session this afternoon to be honest. We’re not where we would expect to be, partly due to the low temperature which we didn’t expect. We’ll analyse what’s changed coming from two warm weekends to here where it’s pretty cold and has changed the game. On a positive note I’m comfortable with the way the car feels; we have a few set-up issues but it’s not as if the car is nowhere. I’m sure we’ll improve tomorrow, and of course if the weather changes again then everything will change. It’s never easy to learn a new track in varying conditions, but it was good to get out there and find my way around, and also to get a proper impression of the intermediate tyres which is a bonus for me. The track itself is quite nice to drive, and I was pleased to be reasonably close to Kimi who obviously has a lot more experience around here. I’ll be working late with the engineers tonight.”

James Allison, Technical Director:

“We spent today trying to make the E20 good for the race and tomorrow we’ll look at ultimate qualifying pace. The morning session was damp and drizzly, and the afternoon was a bit cold. We’re not certain that today will be representative of the race conditions we’ll see. We didn’t find a balance that either driver was happy with today, but we experienced a similar Friday scenario in Albert Park and Sepang and managed to get the cars sorted for Saturday.”

Lotus F1 Team reiterates its commitment to minimising its environmental impact with measures to reduce and offset its carbon emissions. Through commitment from existing partner Trina Solar and through a new relationship with Emissions Spot Trading organization Advanced Global Trading (AGT), the team targets significant carbon emission reduction and carbon neutral status in 2012.

The new relationship with AGT will see every aspect of Enstone come under greater scrutiny than ever before, with the objective of minimising carbon emissions from all processes and procedures at the race team’s base. AGT will also work with Lotus F1 Team partners to help achieve their environmental plans and their Corporate Social Responsibility goals.

Existing Lotus F1 Team partner Trina Solar have committed to the Plant-for-the-Planet Children’s Initiative to offset 220,000 kilograms of CO2 a year through the planting of 9,000 trees per year for the next three years – a total of 27,000 trees.

The team expects to be able to announce further actions to cut its carbon footprint in due course.

Patrick Louis, Chief Executive Officer, Lotus F1 Team:

“Lotus F1 Team takes environmental concerns very seriously, and this has long been the case for teams based at Enstone. The site of the team headquarters is itself based in a former quarry with every effort made to limit the impact on the local environment. We are currently scrutinising every aspect of our business, so to have a new perspective from AGT who have the particular objective of minimising our environmental impact is invaluable. Trina Solar have assisted us through their solar power technology for a number of years and we are proud to be part of their commitment to Plant-for-the-Planet Children’s Initiative.”

Naoki joined Enstone in 2000 as a Vehicle Dynamics Engineer. He was promoted to Head of Control Systems in 2002 and to Deputy Technical Director in 2010. His input on the design of the E20, including on KERS systems and integration, has been invaluable.

Lotus F1 Team wishes Naoki success in his new venture.

James Allison, Technical Director of Lotus F1 Team: ‘While we are sad on a personal level to see Naoki leave Enstone, we believe this move will be overall positive for Renault Sport F1’s customers. We would like to thank Naoki for the tremendous contribution he has made to our team during the 12 years he has been with us and we look forward to the performance he will bring us (and all of Renault Sport F1’s client teams) in his new role.’

• Both cars started on the green marked intermediate tyres. Kimi made three stops with an intermediate, wet, intermediate, hard tyre strategy.
  
• Kimi set a succession of fastest laps on the hard tyres as the track dried, culminating with a 1min 40.722secs on lap 53. It was the 36th Grand Prix fastest lap of his career.
  

Kimi Räikkönen, P5, E20-03

“It was a bit difficult today. It was my first time on the wet weather Pirellis and I didn’t know how the intermediate or wet tyres would react – I had only completed one installation lap on them before. I just tried to stay on the road and push as much as I felt comfortable with. When I changed to the dry tyres it took a couple of laps to get heat into them, and my visor was pretty dirty so seeing the dry line was difficult. Once I found my way I could push much harder. It was difficult to have another mixed weather weekend. The conditions changed a lot today so it was always a case of adapting and looking for grip. Overall, we seemed to have a pretty strong package again this weekend, so I’m relatively happy. A fifth today was okay, but we’re always looking for better results.”

Romain Grosjean, DNF, E20-01

“It felt like a perfect start off the line; I got a good jump on the others and with the KERS I managed to weave through the cars in front without touching anybody. Coming out of the first two corners I was up to third, which was an amazing feeling. In turn four Mark (Webber) managed to carry a bit more speed through the corner and edged in front. Michael (Schumacher) tried to follow him through but there was not enough space so we touched and I spun. From there things became really tough. The visibility was so poor I couldn’t see anything in front of me. We made the decision to stay out on the intermediate tyres but the rain got heavier and there was far too much water. I had massive aquaplaning into turn five and unfortunately ended up going backwards into the gravel.”

Eric Boullier, Team Principal

"Today’s result is a bit frustrating. Whilst it’s good to have a car finish in the top five after starting from tenth in conditions which were very tricky, we can’t help thinking that we could have achieved more from this race. Obviously, it’s disappointing for Romain, as it’s another DNF for him in the early laps of the race. He had never driven in the rain with these intermediate tyres so we have to take that into account. He had a very good start off the line, but the contact with Michael ruined his race. At the restart, we recovered well from our position and on the plus side, the car looked strong again. Kimi had a flawless race. He was very consistent in all conditions and his best lap shows what could have been without his grid penalty. I’m sure when we have a ‘standard’ weekend - without bad weather, penalty or interruption – we will do very well."

James Allison, Technical Director

“What we would give for a normal race! We had to fight back from a grid penalty for changing the gearbox on Kimi’s car. We also had two drivers learning Pirelli’s wet tyres for the first time today. This made for a difficult time here at Sepang. Our pace at the end of the race on dry tyres looks extremely promising from the perspective of both degradation and pace. Give us a normal race, with two clean getaways from the good qualifying positions of which we have shown we are capable, and I think we’ll be able to collect a good reward.”

Ricardo Penteado, Renault Sport F1 Team Support Leader

“Another points scoring finish for Kimi here. Again it was a shame for Romain but over the course of the weekend we confirmed the pace seen in Australia of the Lotus-Renault package. The changeable weather made it very difficult to manage fuel consumption. We burned a lot of fuel at the second start, which allowed us to be lighter towards the final laps. This played out well as Kimi set the fastest lap of the race on lap 53. Overall the engine has worked perfectly and we’re now looking forward to China, which presents a very different challenge.”

Kimi Räikkönen, E20-03.

Q: P5*, 1:36.461.

FP3: P4, 1:37.356.

*Plus five place grid penalty.

Kimi: “The car was working well today. Unfortunately, I made a couple of mistakes on my fastest lap which probably cost a couple of tenths. Without that, we were in with a shout for pole today. I got a little bit sideways at the exit of turn nine and we lost some time, but that’s how it goes sometimes. We had some issues with KERS yesterday, but there was no repeat today; the car worked exactly as it should and it felt good. It’s a shame we have a penalty on the grid but the car works well. Today was definitely a positive day. Tomorrow we start from tenth and will try to improve from there.”

Romain Grosjean, E20-01.

Q: P7*, 1:36.461.

FP3: P7 1:36.658.

*Starts from P6.

Romain: “It’s great to have both cars in Q3, and I’m really pleased to have been part of the top ten in both of my first two races. The team has done a great job to get the most out of the car, and we can be really pleased that we’re fighting for the top positions. It’s going to be an interesting race tomorrow, and hopefully we can move up even further. You never know what will happen with the weather here, our pace is not too far off the leaders and it will be a long race, so anything is possible. In these conditions managing the tyres is crucial. Qualifying is one thing, but the race will be a whole other matter. I’m looking forward to the race, if we can finish in the top five that would be great, but the most important thing is to get my first points of the season."

Alan Permane, Director of Trackside Operations: “We always want more...”

Two drivers in the top ten. That’s a bit more like it…

“Obviously we’re happy from today’s performance, but as ever in Formula 1 we always want more. Kimi felt he made a mistake in a couple of corners, and with a perfect lap he could have certainly done better, but overall to have the fifth and seventh fastest cars in qualifying was encouraging.”

What can we expect from the race tomorrow?

“Looking at all the data, we should expect a strong race. We have a good handle on the tyres in these conditions. We have good set-ups which both drivers feel very happy with. Weather permitting, we should expect to have both cars in the points tomorrow.”

We changed Kimi’s gearbox. Are there any concerns going into the race?

“None at all. We saw high temperatures on Kimi’s gearbox in Australia after the cooler was blocked by grass and debris. It completed most of the race like this. We checked both gearboxes thoroughly and there were no concerns with Romain’s gearbox. Kimi has a new ‘box on his car – for which we receive a five place grid penalty – but this was necessary.”

Sepang is notorious for its variable weather. How do you plan a race strategy for this?

“We plan for a dry race and the fastest strategy possible given our grid positions. We monitor the weather reports and satellite information as well as looking at the skies in the build-up to the race, and we have a plan in case it rains. It’s almost impossible to make a concrete wet race strategy in advance as there are so many variables involved. It’s a time when all of us on the pit wall really have to earn our salaries with our strategy calls. It’s a time for cool heads and calm decisions.”

Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director - Technical programme notes

In FP1 we completed general set-up work followed by race set-up work in FP2.

We ran solely with Pirelli’s hard compound in the first session.

Kimi concentrated on the medium tyre in the afternoon session; Romain concentrated on the hard.

This was a ‘standard’ Friday programme, distinct from the rain-interrupted first day in Melbourne.

We evaluated a new steering rack set-up for Kimi in both session.

Romain had an isuue with an incorrectly seated rear wheel nut in the morning and a cut rear tyre in the afternoon.

Kimi’s KERS was not operating perfectly in the afternoon session.

What we learned today:

The E20 worked well on the Sepang circuit with a good baseline set-up.

Our initial impressions are that we are in good shape for Sunday’s race.

Kimi reported a small improvement from the latest steering specification, which we will use for the rest of this weekend.

Kimi Räikkönen, E20-03

Free practice 1: P7, 1:38.919, 17 laps

Free practice 2: P15, 1:39.696, 22 laps

Kimi: “It was an okay day but we still have work to do on the set-up. The steering was a small improvement but we are still working in this area. I feel fine in the car in the hot conditions, and the race will take place later in the day so I don’t expect that to be a problem. I hope we will make some progress tomorrow as the car is quicker than we’ve shown. Having an issue with the KERS in the afternoon was frustrating but I’m sure we’ll have it fixed for tomorrow. The track is exactly as I remember it and I hope for a better qualifying than we had in Australia. I’m looking forward to racing here.”

Romain Grosjean, E20-01

Free practice 1: P5, 1:39.128, 22 laps

Free practice 2: P9,1:39.311, 29 laps

Romain: “Today went pretty well with a couple of small interruptions to my sessions. In the morning there was something not quite right with the rear of the car which was soon sorted, then in the afternoon I picked up a cut on one of my tyres. Neither was a major issue. We looked at dealing with the heat and finding a good set-up for the high track temperatures here. This track feels fantastic in a Formula 1 car. We’re not quite there with the set-up, but we have plenty of data to work through. I think we’ve got a good idea of where to go for qualifying tomorrow.”

James Allison, Technical Director: “In some ways it was a somewhat scrappy day after losing a tyre set on Romain’s car in the afternoon due to a cut which meant he lost some laps in the second session. He also had an incorrectly seated wheel nut in the morning. Kimi’s KERS was not playing ball for most of the second session which meant his pace was not fully representative. Those were today’s nuisances, but the positives are that the E20 is working reasonably well. We have good base set-ups for both drivers. Tyre management looks OK despite the hot conditions. The pace of the car on high fuel loads looks promising.”

Both cars started on the yellow marked soft compound tyres. Kimi made two stops, opting for a soft-soft-medium strategy. Romain retired before making a stop.

Romain’s retirement was caused by a collision with Pastor Maldonado at turn 13, where the Williams driver made contact with his right front wheel, breaking the steering.

Kimi started the race’s final lap in P10 and finished it in P7.

Kimi Räikkönen, P7, E20-03

“It feels like I’ve never been away. Yesterday we made some mistakes which cost us quite badly so it could easily have been better in the race. I made a good start but then there was an accident in front of me at the first turn, so we lost a few places there as I had to almost stop and move onto the grass to avoid it. That made the race harder again as we had the speed, but a lot of traffic to get through. When you look at all these things we could have finished in a much better position. We had the safety car which I think actually hurt us a bit as well. Overall the weekend was far from ideal, but the car feels good and to come back to 7th means we at least come away with some points.”

Romain Grosjean, DNF, E20-01

“I think we could have achieved a great result today. It’s frustrating as I really wanted to make the chequered flag and even the podium, but on the positive side the car is performing very well. I was keeping pace with the guys in front of me and everything was looking good. My start wasn’t great so we’ll need to have a look at the data. Then of course there was the collision with Pastor (Maldonado). From what I saw he braked far too late and hit my right front wheel which broke the steering and that was it; my race was over. The team deserved better because they have been working very hard, but by tomorrow morning it will all be a memory. We’ll move on to Malaysia now which is one of my favourite circuits and focus on getting a result there.”

Eric Boullier, Team Principal

"We should be leaving Australia with mixed feelings, but actually we all have a little grin on our faces tonight. Yes, we had great expectations from Romain after his third position in qualifying, and seeing another car taking him out of the race early on was very disappointing. But on the other hand, the performance shown by the E20 this weekend makes us optimistic for the rest of the season. The team has produced a very solid car, responsive to set-up changes, and quick. It has been a tough winter, and I’d like to congratulate everybody at Enstone for their hard work which seems to have paid off. I’m proud to be part of a team that can take blows like we suffered in 2011 and still bounce back to show what we are made of. Kimi has been able to demonstrate that we have more than just single-lap pace; gaining 11 places in his first race after a two-year break is certainly a satisfying performance. We’re now all looking forward to Sepang, a completely different track, where we hope we’ll be able to put on another decent show. We think there’s definitely more to come from us."

James Allison, Technical Director

“Though we may have some disappointment from the race, when you look at the weekend overall we can be proud about how the car, team and our drivers have performed as it’s a much more satisfying story. Starting from P3 on the grid, we hoped for something better than P7. However, for Kimi to have converted his rather lowly grid position into a handful of points gives us some consolation. Most importantly, however, the car looks quick and we are optimistic of bringing home strong results with both cars in Malaysia.”

Ricardo Penteado, Renault Sport F1 Team Support Leader

“Australia is a hard track engine-wise as we need to deliver responsiveness out of the slow and medium speed corners for good acceleration down the straights. However this makes fuel consumption very high, so careful engine management is needed. Across the weekend we’ve worked very well as a partnership, with a strong starting position for Romain and ultimately an excellent race result from Kimi giving us a decent amount of points from the first race. Our aim now is to build on this strong form in Malaysia, which puts a very different set of stresses on the RS27.”