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Lotus F1 Team scored their first points of the season after Romain Grosjean came home in a strong seventh position in the Chinese Grand Prix. It wasn’t so plain sailing for Pastor Maldonado who, despite a very strong start, suffered from braking issues and late race contact from Jenson Button, eventually retiring from the race with seven laps to go. Romain started from P8 on the grid on his qualifying soft tyres, changing to new medium tyres on laps 12 and 32. Pastor started from P11 on the grid on his new soft compound tyres, changing to new medium tyres on laps 11 and 33. He retired from the race on lap 49. Romain Grosjean, P7, E23-02 “It’s the best we could do today and it’s satisfying to have achieved the team’s first points of the season. I’m proud of everyone at Enstone and at the track. It wasn’t an easy circuit for us, with a lot of front limited corners that we don’t particularly like, but we had a strong start, and most of the stints were good too. We’ve made a good job improving the car race after race and it’s great to finally score points. The next race could be promising too!" Pastor Maldonado, DNF, E23-03 “I made a great start and we were running strongly early on however later I had a braking issue which made it harder to battle. We also have to understand why the brakes locked-up so easily coming into the pits. We lost a lot of time here and it compromised the rest of my race. It was a fantastic battle with Jenson and we were passing each other very cleanly; a good, fun, exciting battle. Unfortunately, it looks like he got his braking point wrong and went into the back of me. This can easily happen when you’re fighting for position, braking off-line and using DRS, so it’s just one of those things. Certainly our race pace is good, if we qualify a little higher we should be set for a very good time in Bahrain." Federico Gastaldi, Deputy Team Principal "It feels great to gets points on the board and get that particular monkey off our back. Romain performed strongly all weekend and his seventh position is just reward. It wasn’t such a good race for Pastor. He made a fantastic start, but suffered later in the race with braking and also racing contact from Jenson. The team is buoyed by Romain’s result and we’re looking forward to increasing our tally in Bahrain.” Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director "That was a solid race from us which illustrates where we expected to be fighting from the start of the year. Both cars were looking in very good shape for a seventh and eighth finish, and it was a great result from Romain meaning our first points on the board. We achieved our target of overtaking the Red Bull and both of the Saubers with Romain, who delivered everything required. Pastor had a much more difficult race despite a strong start and clearly had potential to finish comfortably in the top ten too.”

Kimi Räikkönen took his second podium finish of the season with a strong second place in the Chinese Grand Prix. Despite a rearranged nose and front wing – courtesy of contact with Sergio Perez’s McLaren – Kimi fought back after a poor start from the front row of the grid. Romain Grosjean endured a more difficult race, with ninth place his reward at the chequered flag. Kimi keeps up his run of consecutive points finishes and retains second in the Drivers’ Championship on a tally of 49 points; three behind leader Sebastian Vettel. The team falls one place to third position in the Constructors’ Championship on 60 points, with Ferrari now ahead with 73 points. Both drivers started on scrubbed sets of the soft compound (yellow) Pirelli tyre. Kimi pitted for new mediums (white) on laps 6, 21 and 34, Romain on laps 7, 23 and 37. Kimi incurred damage to his front wing after an early collision with Sergio Perez. Kimi Räikkönen, P2, E21-03 "I’m not 100% happy because we didn’t win" “Second wasn’t quite what we wanted, but in the circumstances it was the best that we could manage today. I’m not 100% happy because we didn’t win, but it is what it is and second place is a good result after a bad start and the incident with Sergio [Perez]. It was quite difficult out there; obviously the car is not designed like that otherwise we would use it all the time, but I was surprised how good it was still. Of course there were some handling issues which was not ideal, but we just had to try to live with it and we still had pretty okay speed.” Romain Grosjean, P9, E21-01 "I couldn’t get the performance I wanted" “It was a long, tough race and again we not able to make it work quite as well as we wanted. I’m definitely not happy with ninth place; we started P6 and thought we had a good chance to end up within the top five, but unfortunately we could not manage it. I did as much as I could, but I couldn’t get the performance I wanted and being in traffic of course affects this. It was good to score some points for the team, but I want more in Bahrain for sure.” Eric Boullier, Team Principal "Kimi showed once more why he’s one of the very best drivers in the world" "It’s a good result for the team today. Kimi showed once more why he’s one of the very best drivers in the world by being one of the fastest on track despite sustaining damage to his car. As a team we were able to give him a good strategy allowing us to beat Lewis [Hamilton] and Mercedes in a close battle. Romain had a more difficult day, but he scored points in another race which is positive and we feel he’s reached a turning point now where things will start coming together. Without the poor start and without the incident for Kimi then we definitely would have fought for a win today.” Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director "We lost around 0.25 seconds per lap due to the damage to Kimi’s car." “It was an eventful race and good fun too. We had an interesting start with Kimi dropping back, but once we got onto the prime tyres things went pretty smoothly. There was no way we could get past Lewis on track; even though we had very similar pace and were even perhaps quicker than him. This meant we had to achieve it during the pit stops which worked perfectly. Kimi lost quite a bit of downforce with his front wing damage, otherwise he should have been able to challenge Fernando [Alonso] for the lead. We lost around 0.25 seconds per lap due to the damage to Kimi’s car. It was a more difficult day for Romain who was struggling a little bit with his tyres, but overall for the team we had both cars in the points which is great.” Ricardo Penteado, Renault Sport F1 Team Support Leader “A very positive result today for Kimi that gives important points for both championships. Tyre usage and degradation has once again proved to be the story of the weekend, and an area we have worked particularly hard on to deliver power smoothly with little wheelspin so the tyre life is extended as much as possible. This year’s racing is closer than ever so we’ll keep pushing in Bahrain to maximize every area we can and stay to the front of the field.”

Kimi Räikkönen will have his first front row start since the 2009 Monaco Grand Prix after qualifying second for tomorrow’s Chinese Grand Prix at the Shanghai International Circuit. Kimi set a 1min 34.761secs lap using Pirelli’s soft compound tyre and will start alongside Lewis Hamilton for the 56 lap race. Romain Grosjean was also comfortably inside the top ten, with a Q3 time of 1min 35.364secs placing him sixth on the grid. Kimi Räikkönen, E21-03. Q: P2, 1:34.761. FP3: P7, 1:36.605 "This is my best qualifying for the team which is good, but of course you always want to be on pole." “This is my best qualifying for the team which is good, but of course you always want to be on pole. It’s been quite a tricky weekend so far and we’ve had a few small issues with setup, but it’s always difficult to get things exactly how you want them and the car seems to be working well now. The tyres will of course be the question mark tomorrow; some people are starting on the primes but we chose the strategy we think will work best. Hopefully we can keep managing the degradation well like we have so far this season and have a good race tomorrow.” Romain Grosjean, E21-01. Q: P6, 1:35.364. FP3: P18, 1:37.813 "The engineers have been working hard and did a fantastic job." “Friday was difficult and we missed some time on Saturday morning so it’s been a challenging weekend, but I’m finally back in business. We’ve been chasing some small problems here and there, but the engineers have been working hard and did a fantastic job to get the car to where it is now. My first lap on options in Q1 was actually my first of the weekend with those tyres so we had to guess a little on the set up, but I think we did pretty well. Of course you always want to do better, but overall I’m pleased. The car was much better this afternoon so let’s see what we can do in the race.” Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: "We’re obviously very happy with the result today." How was qualifying for the team? We’re obviously very happy with the result today. Kimi has been comfortable with his car pretty much all weekend; not so much this morning when a small set up change was made, but that was reversed and he was back where we wanted to be. What was the problem with Romain’s car? Romain had a difficult morning but with no real issues; just circumstantial problems which put things on hold briefly. He went into qualifying with a car that was unchanged from this morning, so bearing in mind his earlier tribulations he did a great job to take P6. What are the considerations the for race strategy? We’ve done all our race preparation and run work so we know where we are in terms of both the soft and the medium compound tyres; we’re pretty confident on strategy and looking forward to running a very strong race. What is possible tomorrow? From second and sixth anything is possible; we will certainly be pushing to get both drivers on the podium with one of them on the top step.

Kimi Räikkönen set the second fastest time of the first day during the opening sessions for round three of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship; the Chinese Grand Prix. Kimi lapped the Shanghai International Circuit in a time of 1min 35.492secs during a soft tyre run in the afternoon session. Romain Grosjean was hampered on his flying lap using the softs; ending his second session with the twelfth fastest time. Romain conducted comparison work on the team’s latest exhaust package and ran with a new front wing, while Kimi trialled new rear floor aero parts. Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director - Technical programme notes We evaluated a new front wing on Romain’s car. Kimi ran with new aero components on the rear floor. Pirelli’s medium (white) compound tyre was used in the first session, the medium and soft (yellow) tyres during the second. Romain ran with the latest exhaust package in the morning, reverting to the older configuration in the afternoon for comparison purposes. What we learned today: The new front wing appears to be beneficial and Romain will continue with it for the rest of the weekend. The data from the rear exhaust package appears to confirm the benefit of the latest specification. The car looks good with both tyre compounds. Kimi Räikkönen, E21-03 Free practice 1: P11, 1:38.790, 16 laps Free practice 2: P2, 1:35.492, 32 laps "We’re certainly not struggling so it could be a good weekend." Kimi: “If you look at the lap time it looks to have been a pretty okay day. For sure there are things we have to improve and you never know what will happen tomorrow but it’s a reasonable start to the weekend. We seem to be happy with the soft tyres and maybe not as happy with the harder ones. We’ve still got time to improve and we’re certainly not struggling so it could be a good weekend.” Romain Grosjean, E21-01 Free practice 1: P9, 1:38.398, 17 laps Free practice 2: P12, 1:36.963, 31 laps "We now have a lot of data to help find the extra performance we want." Romain: “Today was not so easy for me and I’m still looking for the right setup. I ran with the new exhaust package in the morning and the older one in the afternoon to try to help find where improvements can be made. We now have a lot of data to help find the extra performance we want. The new front wing helps, so that’s a step in the right direction. In Malaysia we developed the car as the weekend continued and there are of course a few things we can change overnight. It’s a new day tomorrow and we’ll hopefully be able to have the car as I’d like it for a strong result this weekend.” Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: “We’re reasonably happy with what was a fairly normal Friday for us. Kimi’s pace looks strong and he felt he could have gone faster on his flying lap. Romain’s lap time is not representative after he got caught up behind Lewis [Hamilton] during his option run. The grip level between the two tyres through certain corners is quite noticeable and – as we saw during winter testing – the lifespan of the soft tyre could be a talking point. There’s no doubt it’s the tyre for qualifying, but making it last in the race will be a challenge. Overall we’re pleased with the car in terms of pace, high fuel performance and tyre preservation; hopefully we can look forward to a strong weekend ahead.”