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Romain Grosjean produced a strong drive to take fourth place in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix from sixth on the grid, whilst Kimi Räikkönen’s race ended in retirement following contact at the first corner. A flying start from Romain saw him jump two places to fourth position through the opening series of corners; settling in behind the third-placed Red Bull of Mark Webber until the first round of pit stops. Kimi meanwhile saw his evening curtailed after just a few hundred metres; a clash of wheels with Caterham’s Giedo van der Garde resulting in a broken track rod on the Finn’s E21. Having emerged right behind Esteban Guttierez after his first pit stop, Romain wasted little time in passing the Mexican, only to be held up behind Adrian Sutil until the second phase of stops. Once in clear air, the Frenchman pushed hard to build a sufficient gap which would allow him to re-join in front of both Ferraris following his second stop; achieving that task by the narrowest of margins. Despite consistently closing the gap to Nico Rosberg in the closing stages, Romain missed out on a fourth consecutive podium finish by a margin of just a single second at the flag. Kimi retains third place in the Drivers’ Championship on 183 points; 34 behind Fernando Alonso in second. Romain remains in seventh position with 114 points; trailing Nico Rosberg by 45. The team remains fourth in the Constructors’ Championship on 297 points from Ferrari’s 323, with third spot remaining a firm target heading into the final two races of the season. Kimi started from twenty-second on the grid with a new set of medium tyres, having been excluded from his P5 qualifying slot due to a technical infringement on his E21. He retired on the first lap after contact with Giedo van der Garde at Turn 1 which broke his right-front track rod. Romain started from sixth on a scrubbed set of soft tyres, having been promoted one position on the grid as a result of his team-mate’s penalty. The Frenchman pitted on lap eight for new mediums, and again on lap thirty-seven for a scrubbed set of the same compound. In his pursuit of the final podium position, Romain set the third fastest lap of the race on his penultimate lap; underlining the pace of the E21 here at the Yas Marina Circuit. Kimi Räikkönen, DNF, E21-05 “There was some contact in front of me through the first corner so I stuck to the inside, but unfortunately one of the Caterhams touched my front wheel and it broke the track rod. It wasn’t a heavy impact, but the angle made it worse. It’s never easy starting so far back on the grid, but after the penalty it was a better choice to help our chances in the race rather than starting from the pit lane. After a difficult start to the weekend we did well yesterday so it was a shame we couldn’t start where we qualified, but these things happen sometimes; it’s just back luck.” Romain Grosjean, P4, E21-04 “That was a pretty long race. I got a good start and made up two places in the first few corners, but after that I lost a lot of time behind the Force India. I could overtake him with the DRS, but he had much better top speed and could just drive straight back past at the next straight. That middle stint cost us the chance of a podium in the end, and on pace we could maybe even have pushed Mark [Webber] for second place, but that’s how it goes sometimes. It’s a shame we couldn’t make it four podiums in a row, but to come away with fourth place after a difficult couple of days is a decent result.” Eric Boullier, Team Principal “It’s been a difficult weekend for the team, but we can be pleased with the fact our car has once again shown strong pace at another different circuit. After the misfortune of his qualifying penalty it was always going to be a tough race for Kimi. Starting at the back with a faster car always puts you in a tricky position, and in the end it was bad luck once again that saw his race end on the first lap; for the first time since 2006 I believe. Romain drove a very mature race to narrowly miss out on his fourth consecutive podium, which on another day and without his issues in qualifying would certainly have been within reach. We have some work to do if we are to achieve our target of third place in the Constructors’ Championship, so our focus must now be on returning to the podium in Austin.” Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director “We came into this weekend anticipating another podium challenge, but unfortunately circumstances have ultimately conspired against that happening. Having already been stripped of his best qualifying performance since Germany, Kimi’s race was cut short on the first lap after a tangle with one of the Caterhams, bringing a disappointing end to a weekend where his pace had been much improved. It was a trouble free race for Romain by contrast, who drove well to take fourth place. His progress was quite heavily hindered by traffic midway through the race and we didn’t quite have the pace to challenge [Nico] Rosberg in the closing stages, so realistically he achieved the best possible result on the day. What’s especially pleasing is that he’s gone from being labelled a ‘first lap nutcase’ to consistently gaining positions away from the line and through the opening sequence of corners at each race. We now head to Austin where we’ll be working hard to make a return to the podium.” Ricardo Penteado, Renault Sport F1 Team Support Leader “Romain did a great job today to finish just outside the podium places. Again he managed the engine and fuel consumption well so we could turn up the engine modes when we needed to push and he came away with some valuable points for the championship battle. Unfortunately Kimi stopped early, but it’s always a risk when starting from that position. We’ll keep it focused for the final two races though and try to get as many points as we can to finish the V8 era on a high.”

Kimi Räikkönen ended the day fifth with team-mate Romain Grosjean seventh in a tightly contested qualifying session for tomorrow’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Hot, dry, still conditions prevailed during the final practice session, with cooling temperatures the feature of qualifying as the sun set over the Yas Marina Circuit. A straightforward Q1 session saw both drivers set a banker lap on medium tyres, before emerging for a single stint on soft rubber to sail through in third [Kimi] and seventh [Romain]. Q2 by contrast was a closely fought affair; the Finn and Frenchman progressing in ninth and eighth respectively, separated by less than three hundredths of a second after two runs apiece on softs. The top ten shootout of Q3 again saw both black and gold cars make two appearances on soft tyres, with their opening runs good enough for a pair of top six placings. As the chequered flag dropped under the Yas Marina floodlights, Kimi found himself fifth with Romain seventh. Kimi Räikkönen, E21-05 Q: P5, 1:40.542 FP3: P9, 1:42.387 “Today wasn’t too bad overall. In the early sessions both yesterday and today I struggled a bit to get the car working how I wanted, but in the evening when the temperature is cooler it’s been much more to my liking. This is good as the race will be in the evening so we’d prefer it that way around for sure. The short wheelbase car seems to suit my style a bit better too, so hopefully we can continue this way for tomorrow. Of course, you always want to be as far up the grid as you can and we clearly weren’t the fastest today, but you never know what might happen on Sunday so we’ll see what we can do.” Romain Grosjean, E21-04 Q: P7, 1:40.997 FP3: P5, 1:41.832 “That was one of the trickier qualifying sessions we’ve had recently, and seventh on the grid is not where we expected to be after the pace we’ve shown so far this weekend. The car felt quite different this evening – particularly in terms of front end – so we’ll need to investigate where it’s not quite working. It’s a long race tomorrow in tough conditions and everyone around us will be starting on the same tyres, so we need to try and find some performance from the data tonight to achieve our target of the podium.” Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: “We expect strong race pace tomorrow” How was qualifying for the team? That was a great qualifying performance from Kimi who was unlucky not to be in front of both Mercedes after the final sector of his qualifying lap narrowly cost him a potential third position. By contrast, Romain had a bit of a struggle today and wasn’t as comfortable with his car as he has been so far this weekend. Having both cars inside the top ten is a decent result however, as we expect to see strong race pace from the E21. What is possible tomorrow? Our target on pace alone is to race and beat Mercedes; ending the weekend with another good points haul over them in the Constructors’ Championship in the process. Of course, we’ll be ready to capitalise on any opportunities that Red Bull may present us, but they are looking very fast once more here. What are the tyre strategy considerations for the race? There don’t appear to be too many permutations here, so it could be quite a straight-forward race. Certainly, the different options that presented themselves in New Delhi don’t look to be available here so we’ll watch how the race evolves and react accordingly.

Kimi Räikkönen ended the first day of practice for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix with the fourth fastest time of the day at the Yas Marina Circuit; racking up the joint-highest number of laps completed in the process [65 across the two sessions]. Romain Grosjean was fastest in the first session, but had a brake and then a vibration issue in the second session to end the day twelfth fastest. Technical Programme Notes: Kimi ran with the team’s original, shorter wheelbase specification whilst Romain ran with the later, longer wheelbase specification. Kimi ran trouble-free throughout both sessions enabling a variety of set-up permutations to be evaluated, whilst Romain missed track time in the second session due to an issue first with his brakes, then with vibration. Pirelli’s medium [white] tyre was used in the first session, the medium and soft [yellow] compound in the second session [both held in the afternoon]. What We Learned Today: The E21 demonstrated strong potential using both tyre compounds in both long and short configuration. Kimi Räikkönen, E21-05 Free Practice 1: P6, 1:44.929, 23 laps Free Practice 2: P4, 1:41.726, 42 laps Kimi: “The car feels okay and we had a pretty normal Friday. The shorter chassis feels okay here, but I didn’t drive it back to back with the longer one so it’s difficult to say which is better. We’re still trying to get rid of some understeer, but on this circuit it feels better so far. As always, there are some improvements we can make to the car so let’s see what happens tomorrow.” Romain Grosjean, E21-04 Free Practice 1: P1, 1:44.241, 21 laps Free Practice 2: P12, 1:42.607, 18 laps Romain: “It’s been a pretty good day even if we missed time in the later session whilst the brakes were worked on. We also had a little vibration that needed looking at, but it wasn’t the end of the world. The car feels pretty good as we saw with the fastest time in the first session, so I’m sure we’ll get on top of everything we need to for tomorrow.” Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: “As always in Abu Dhabi, we saw two very different sessions on Friday; the first taking place in daylight with very high track temperatures, the second in much more representative evening temperatures which is what we’ll see for qualifying and the race. We completed limited setup work in FP1 – focusing on setting ride heights rather than car balance – then used FP2 to complete our normal evaluations of the two tyre compounds. Unfortunately Romain had a brake disc failure which lost him some track time, and there was a small vibration when he returned to the track so we cut his day short in order to fully investigate this issue. Kimi meanwhile had a good day and looks competitive on both tyres. He wanted to try the short wheelbase car again as he felt its characteristics would suit this circuit. So far it all looks good and this configuration will be kept on his car for the remainder of the weekend. His long-run pace looks very encouraging on both tyres.”

Romain Grosjean drove a perfect race from seventeenth on the Indian Grand Prix grid to third at the chequered flag – despite enduring problems with his engine’s pneumatic system – whilst Kimi Räikkönen found the limits of his tyre’s performance as the team attempted a one-stop strategy. Romain managed his car well to take the final podium slot while the team and engine partners Renault devised a strategy to limit the air consumption of his engine’s pneumatic system. Kimi ran out of tyre performance near the end of his race, resulting in a late pit stop and the consolation of the race’s fastest lap. Kimi retains third place in the Drivers’ Championship on 183 points; 14 points ahead of Lewis Hamilton and with a reduced gab to Fernando Alonso on 207 ahead. Romain rises to seventh position on an equal points tally – 102 – to Felipe Massa in eighth. The team remains fourth in the Constructors’ Championship on 285 points from Ferrari’s 309. Over the previous four races – Singapore, Korea, Japan and India – Lotus F1 Team has scored the second highest points tally of any outfit on the grid with a haul of 94, behind only Red Bull Racing on 118. In that same period, only Sebastian Vettel has outscored Kimi and Romain; 100 points for the German compared to the Finn’s 49 and Frenchman’s 45. Kimi started from P6 with a scrubbed set of soft tyres, changing to new mediums on lap 7 and making a late stop for a further set of mediums on lap 58. Romain started from P17 on a new set soft tyres, changing to a new set of mediums on lap 13. Kimi Räikkönen, P7, E21-05 “We ran maybe the first twenty laps with no brakes as they had overheated massively, so every time I got close to somebody I lost braking. At the end of the race I ran out of tyre performance too so it’s been a pretty disappointing day. I knew the tyres would drop off quite quickly, but there wasn’t much to lose between trying to get to the end and making an extra pit stop in terms of time lost. In the end it didn’t work.” Romain Grosjean, P3, E21-04 “If you had told me yesterday that I’d be on the podium here I would have said you were crazy! Straight from the beginning of the race I felt very comfortable on the option tyres and we looked in pretty good shape, then we fitted the mediums and the car was really quick. I lost quite a lot of time behind [Esteban] Gutierrez which maybe cost us the fight for second, but we managed to come back from that well. When I saw that I was fourth in front of [Felipe] Massa with 27 laps to go I knew it was going to be close with him as we had to take care of the tyres, plus we had an engine issue at the end of the race which made things quite tricky. In the final laps Kimi was really struggling with his tyres so I managed to pass him and luckily had enough pace to keep Felipe behind. Before the race our best prediction was fourth if we had a strong start and a perfect race, so it was an amazing result and a great performance from the team.” Eric Boullier, Team Principal “It’s been an eventful weekend. In the end it was a brilliant job from the team and a great performance from Romain, who had a very strong drive and managed to conserve his tyre performance right to the end. He was fast today despite having to nurse his engine, and being on the podium is a good reward for the whole team. Obviously it’s disappointing that the tyres couldn’t last long enough for Kimi as being third and fourth would have been an amazing result for the team and very useful in the Constructors’ Championship, but we’ll keep fighting hard until the end of the season and we’ll give some headaches to the other teams. We give our congratulations to Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull for their Championship victory today, and also our promise that we’re working hard to give them a tougher battle in 2014.” Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director “It was a fantastic race from both drivers, even though the strategy didn’t quite work out for Kimi. We started with a plan of two stops for him but made the call to go for one after losing time stuck behind Nico [Hulkenberg]. Unfortunately the tyres didn’t quite last as long as he needed and he was forced into making a late stop for fresh rubber. It was a fantastic drive from Romain again and a great call from our strategy team to move him from seventeenth to third; that was just brilliant. Romain’s engine pneumatic system’s air consumption was a big worry and we had to use every trick in the book to avoid him retiring as per Singapore. Overall, a great team performance today.” Ricardo Penteado, Renault Sport F1 Team Support Leader “A hard race today right until the end, and a relief to get the eventual result! Romain did a fantastic job to finish on the podium; especially with having to manage a problem with the pneumatic system. Unfortunately we had an occurrence similar to the issue from Singapore – despite having put a solution in place – so we’ll look at this before Abu Dhabi. Also a big congratulations to all at Red Bull; it’s great to see another Renault powered title!”

Kimi Räikkönen qualified sixth with team-mate Romain Grosjean seventeenth ahead of tomorrow’s Indian Grand Prix. Warm, dry conditions remained throughout the day at the Buddh International circuit, with the poor visibility that had hampered FP3 earlier in the day clearing sufficiently to allow un-interrupted running for qualifying. A tightly contested Q1 session saw Kimi make two runs – one on each tyre compound – to eventually progress in P6 using the soft rubber. Romain by contrast ran a single stint on medium tyres; a gamble which narrowly failed to pay off as the Frenchman found himself eliminated at the first hurdle, despite posting a time just a second away from the fastest car. Q2 was more straightforward for the remaining E21; Kimi progressing comfortably to the top ten in fourth with a strong pair of single lap runs on the medium tyres. The final session saw the Finn take sixth spot at the flag with a single run on soft rubber. Kimi Räikkönen, E21-05 Q: P6, 1:25.248 FP3: P11, 1:26.635 “It wasn’t an ideal qualifying session and I’m still having some problems with understeer, but the car did feel better overall than yesterday. The tyres have to be managed over a full lap for qualifying so we are where we are on the grid. We’ll see what happens tomorrow and I’ll try to do as well as I can. Overall, the car feels slightly better than in the last few races; still not where we want it to be, but slightly better.” Romain Grosjean, E21-04 Q: P17, 1:26.577 FP3: P5, 1:26.350 “We took a gamble once again to try just one run on the prime tyres in Q1, and although it’s been a successful tactic for us recently it didn’t pay off this time. The times were much tighter than expected and ultimately we made a miscalculation with the cut-off time. It’s easy to look back and think what might have been, but we made the decision together and unfortunately in the end it was the wrong one. It’s tough to overtake here so it’s going to be a long race from seventeenth on the grid. We’ll have to pull off something quite special with the strategy to take anything from there, but of course we’ll analyse the options overnight to see what’s possible. For sure we won’t be leading after the first corner this time, but we’ll do our best.” Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: “In hindsight we made the wrong call” How was qualifying for the team? In hindsight we made the wrong call with Romain. We expected him to progress quite comfortably through Q1 on the medium tyre and unfortunately this wasn’t the case. Clearly, he’s starting a long way out of position and will need a strong charge through the field to make it into the top ten, but we’re extremely confident that he’ll be able to do so. How far into the points he can progress will depend on the start and our management of the tyres. It was a reasonably straightforward session for Kimi with no real dramas. He’ll be the first to admit that qualifying hasn’t been going to plan for him recently, and he’s about where we expected him to be after free practice this morning. As always we’re confident that his race pace will be exemplary, so we’re anticipating a very strong race from him starting from sixth on the grid. Where do we stand in terms of setup to help the drivers progress through the field tomorrow? We’ve taken this into account after seeing how tough overtaking can be here during last season’s race. Kimi’s car is certainly more biased towards race pace than single lap performance, and we’ll be looking at ways to help Romain carve his way up the order overnight too. Our race pace on the medium tyre looked strong during practice, so we’re hopeful of making progress. What are the tyre strategy considerations for the race? Today very much followed the pattern of the weekend so far, with the option tyre suffering from blistering and graining while the prime looks to be a very strong choice for the race. We’ve seen so far that there’s about a second per lap difference in long run pace between the two. One of the keys to the race is certainly making the front left tyre – and to a lesser extent the front right – last when using the soft compound; particularly on high fuel at the start of the race.

Romain Grosjean ended the first day of practice for the Indian Grand Prix with the third fastest lap of the day, whilst Kimi Räikkönen was eighth at the Buddh International Circuit. Both drivers completed their Friday programmes, with extra focus given to long runs on Pirelli’s soft and medium tyre allocation. Technical programme notes Both cars ran trouble-free through both sessions enabling a variety of set-up permutations to be evaluated. Pirelli’s medium (white) tyre was used in the morning and the medium and soft (yellow) compound slick tyres were used in the afternoon session. What we learned today: The E21 demonstrated strong potential using both tyre compounds. Kimi Räikkönen, E21-05 Free practice 1: P17, 1:28.730, 18 laps Free practice 2: P8, 1:26.632, 32 laps Kimi: “The car feels pretty okay now, but we can still make it better. We made quite a few changes in the morning as it didn’t feel so good then, but it’s much better now and we should be able to make more progress for tomorrow. The track is quite slippery, but that improves with time and the car gets better too.” Romain Grosjean, E21-04 Free practice 1: P4, 1:26.990, 20 laps Free practice 2: P3, 1:26.220, 36 laps Romain: “That was a good start to the weekend. The car feels good and we made progress through the day to make it better. It’s still a struggle to find grip here which can make things interesting as you find the limits, but the pace of our car relative to our rivals looks quite good. I’m hopeful of another solid day tomorrow which should give us another strong qualifying position if the evidence of today is anything to go by. We’ll do everything we can to take the fight to Red Bull.” Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: “It was a difficult morning for Kimi who wasn’t happy with the balance of his car so his engineers made a reasonable amount of changes to the set-up over lunch, meaning the car was much more to his liking in the afternoon. Romain was generally happy with his car and just made minor changes to the set-up to get it 100% to his liking. We completed a good number of laps on low and high fuel with both tyres and we’re looking in strong shape. The Red Bulls are unfortunately looking incredibly quick, but we’re leading the charge behind them.”

Another strong performance for Lotus F1 Team saw Romain Grosjean take a fighting third, whilst team-mate Kimi Räikkönen battled his way to fifth in a tense Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka. A superb start from Romain saw him lead in the early stages, before fighting hard with both Red Bulls in the latter stages. Kimi endured a tough start – dropping back to P11 – before battling back in typical fashion to climb back up the order. Kimi retains third place in the Drivers’ Championship on 177 points; sixteen clear of Lewis Hamilton and thirty behind Fernando Alonso. Romain Grosjean remains eighth in the standings on 87 points, just three behind Felipe Massa. The team maintains fourth in the Constructors’ Championship on 264 points; now just 23 behind Mercedes and comfortably ahead of McLaren. Kimi started from P9 with a scrubbed set of medium compound tyres, changing to scrubbed hard tyres on lap 11 and new hard tyres on lap 31. Romain started from P4 on a scrubbed set of medium compound tyres, changing to scrubbed hard tyres on lap 12 and new hard tyres on lap 29. Kimi Räikkönen, P5, E21-05 “I had a very poor start. I left the line with wheelspin and lost a few places which wasn’t ideal, but I managed to gain places back later on in the race. After the final pit stop the car was working much better. It ran well in the last half of the race and I was very happy with it. It was a pretty normal race I would say. It’s difficult to overtake here so it’s good that we got some points. We did what we could.” Romain Grosjean, P3, E21-04 “Today was just a very, very good race. What a start! It was superb to go past both the Red Bulls like that and it’ll be one of my best memories of the year. The car was fantastic on the first set of tyres and we managed to pull away, but then the Red Bulls were able to reel us in later on. Ultimately, we were the only car to almost catch the bull. It’s been a great home race for my engineer; it’s always good to come to Japan and it’s really good to be back on the podium again.” Eric Boullier, Team Principal “It’s great to see such a good fight in the race and both our cars show so strongly. Once again, both drivers, our strategists and the pit crew performed brilliantly and we did the very best we could on track. We don’t have the pace to beat Red Bull, but today we showed them that we are nevertheless quite formidable whilst also underlining to Mercedes and Ferrari that we are a strong contender for the final four races of the season. We must say a big thanks to everyone at Enstone for the fantastic car we have in the E21. To see Romain leading the race was very satisfying and we hope to see that again very soon.” Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director “It was a great race for us and superb to see Romain leading for so much of it. We were the only team to take the fight to Red Bull; ultimately they were too quick for us but we took a strong and well deserved third place with Romain and a fighting fifth with Kimi. Romain made a fantastic start and we had enough in hand in the first stint to be able to pit a lap later than Mark, but they started to catch us on the medium tyres and Sebastian was able to catch and pass reasonably easily with their superior pace. It’s a great feeling to show so strongly at Suzuka.” Ricardo Penteado, Renault Sport F1 Team Support Leader “Suzuka plays to the strengths of our chassis-engine package, with the straights taking advantage of the good top end power whilst our driveability and good tyre wear favour the slower, more flowing sections. A great race for Romain today; he had a fantastic start and was in contention for the win throughout the entire race. Kimi also had a strong race and was very close to giving Renault a perfect 1-2-3-4 result!”

Romain Grosjean qualified P4 with team-mate Kimi Räikkönen P9 ahead of tomorrow’s Japanese Grand Prix. Warm, dry conditions remained throughout the day at the Suzuka circuit, with changing wind direction a factor throughout proceedings. Romain put in an impressive lap on the hard compound tyre to go fastest in the red flag interrupted Q1 session with Kimi taking P8. The Frenchman then edged a tight intra-team Q2 battle to take P3 from his Finnish counterpart’s P5, with both posting laps within three tenths of one another in the final Q3 session to end the day in P4 / P9. Kimi Räikkönen, E21-05 Q: P9, 1:31.684 FP3: P8, 1:32.946 “The car has felt much better here than it has in recent races; even if we don’t have a better position on the grid for tomorrow. A small mistake on my quick lap cost me a little bit of time and it’s very close here, so a small amount lost can mean quite a few positions dropped. We’ll have to see what happens in the race, but the car has certainly been more to my liking this weekend so the position on the grid is not a drama.” Romain Grosjean, E21-04 Q: P4, 1:31.365 FP3: P4, 1:32.707 “The Red Bulls have looked very strong and we knew it would be tight with Lewis [Hamilton] for P3, so I think we did a good job to take P4. The car feels much better than it did yesterday; especially on the hard tyres which we had been struggling with previously but were then fastest with in Q1 today. The team worked hard to address this overnight and we’ve shown great progress through the weekend once again. It’s a tight, technical circuit, the wind is still making things tricky and it should stay pretty hot, so it’ll be interesting to see what we can do in the race. I’m feeling pretty good.” Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: “We’re now very happy on both tyre compounds” How was qualifying for the team? Today went reasonably to plan with both drivers in the top ten for tomorrow’s race. Romain continued his good qualifying form and P4 on the grid is a good result, but agonisingly close to P3 once again. It was a very close qualifying session so to have Kimi start P9 is no big drama; especially as we know how well he can work through the field in race conditions. How much progress has been made since yesterday? After missing some long runs on Friday, we spent more time on race preparation during morning practice and managed to unlock some extra pace in the car – especially on the primes – so we’re now very happy on both compounds. Yes, we did struggle with the hard tyres yesterday, but we’ve made a significant setup change which has certainly been beneficial in this area. Both drivers are much happier with their cars. What are the strategic permutations tomorrow? The weather forecast looks fine, while the wind – which is often a factor here – looks to be coming from a similar direction to today although maybe not as strong. With that in mind – added to our pace on both tyre compounds – we’re confident we can come up with a good strategy for a strong result.

Eric Boullier, Team Principal: “We are deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Maria de Villota earlier today. On behalf of the team here in Japan and back at Enstone, I would like to express our condolences to the friends, family and colleagues of Maria. Our thoughts are with them at this difficult time.” Kimi Räikkönen set the fourth fastest and Romain Grosjean the fifth fastest time on the first day of practice for the Japanese Grand Prix. Hot conditions, clear blue skies and off-track excursions from a number of drivers characterised the day, amongst them Kimi; who ended the second session early – stranded in gravel at Turn 7 – following a spin. Technical programme notes: Kimi missed the final 30 minutes of running in FP2 following a spin. Pirelli’s hard compound [orange] tyre was used in the morning, the hard and medium [white] in the afternoon session. What we learned today: The E21 demonstrated strong potential on both tyre compounds. Kimi Räikkönen, E21-05 Free Practice 1: P8, 1:35.364, 17 laps Free practice 2: P4, 1:34.202, 17 laps Kimi: “The car felt pretty good today. Of course, there are some areas we can improve but I’m quite happy with the progress we made. I spun in FP2 so we did miss some of the long run laps we would have got this afternoon. I was on a fast run and the wind changed, which can affect the car sometimes. At least we didn’t do any damage so the crew won’t have any extra work. It’s not a big drama as we know the track pretty well. We have a few changes for tomorrow so let’s see what happens.” Romain Grosjean, E21-04 Free Practice 1: P7, 1:35.179, 15 laps Free Practice 2: P5, 1:34.411, 30 laps Romain: “Finding the right balance to get the car working well around here is quite tricky and the tyres are not making that any easier, so we’ve got some work to do overnight to make it a little easier to handle. There’s definitely some more performance to be found, and it’s always better to be near the top of the times even if you’ve not got things quite right, so we’ll see what we can do tomorrow.” Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: “We have struggled a bit for consistency today, with both drivers having off-track excursions. Romain in particular experienced brake locking, which is something we can counter with some mapping work. We lost a reasonable amount of long run data collection as a result of Kimi’s spin, meaning Romain’s programme was modified slightly and we might look at doing some race simulation work during tomorrow’s practice. On the softer tyre we look competitive and I think we can expect to qualify well. Our long run pace also looks good so it’s an encouraging start to the weekend.”

Lotus F1 Team scored its third double podium of the season as Kimi Räikkönen took second and Romain Grosjean third in an emphatic team performance at the Korean Grand Prix. Both drivers benefited from strong race pace and drove superbly – including dicing with each other – during a race which saw two safety car periods. Kimi returns to third place in the Drivers’ Championship on 167 points – displacing Lewis Hamilton – and now lies 28 points behind Fernando Alonso in second. Romain Grosjean remains eighth in the standings on 72 points, 17 away from Felipe Massa in seventh. The team maintains fourth place in the Constructors’ Championship on 239 points from Mercedes’ 283. Kimi started from P9 with a scrubbed set of super soft tyres, changing to new mediums on laps 11 and 25. Romain started from P3 on a scrubbed set of super soft tyres, changing to new mediums on laps 10 and 31. Kimi Räikkönen, P2, E21-05 “Second place is ok and a good result for the team, but we’re here to win and having to fight your way to the front from a bad starting position is not ideal. Qualifying was pretty awful for me, but it’s difficult to say whether a better grid position would have made the difference. Sebastian was faster than us at the end; not massively, but a little bit for sure and his tyres were fresher too so I think it would have been tough to catch him in any case. We were closer to the Red Bull today than we have been in some races, but not close enough. People might say it was good luck with the safety car, but sometimes these things go with you and others they go against you. We made up some places even before that happened, and if we hadn’t had the speed then we wouldn’t have been in a position to take advantage. You could see at the end that we had more than enough pace to keep the others behind, so I think it’s deserved.” Romain Grosjean, P3, E21-04 “It’s a fantastic result for the team. Of course, one step higher on the podium would have been better for me and two steps better would have been superb, but it didn’t quite work out that way. Our battle with Lewis [Hamilton] was good and our pace was great, but the two safety car periods hurt our attempts to battle for the win. After the restart I should have been in front of Kimi on the road, but it was my mistake which let him past. I went a bit wide in Turn 15 and got on the Astroturf – which is very slippery – and that let him get a run on me. Then there were yellow flags into Turn 3 so I couldn’t take the place back straight away. Of course, I was asking the team to let me past Kimi as I was on fresher tyres, but they left us to race which is our philosophy of fair play. You lose so much downforce in sectors two and three and obviously our cars are pretty close on performance so it’s pretty hard to pass, but we have to be very happy with a double podium.” Eric Boullier, Team Principal “Another double podium for the team is a fantastic result and it tastes like a race win this late in the season. Credit to everyone back at Enstone for delivering us extra performance from the long wheelbase car, as any gain towards the end of the year is especially beneficial as we fight for position in both Championships. The race team delivered a great strategy and pit stops, whilst both drivers drove exceptionally well. We have a lot of promise for the remaining races and podiums are certainly on our agenda.” Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director “A great result for the team. We thought we would be competitive coming into this weekend, and in the end we qualified well and raced extremely well. Romain drove an incredibly strong race, and without the safety car would have taken a very comfortable second place. There was an element of luck for Kimi with the safety car and he certainly made the most of that, before once more demonstrating that he never stops pushing by capitalising on the one mistake made by his team-mate all weekend. It was close between the two, but we let both drivers race to the end which was the right thing to do. All signs look positive for Japan.” Ricardo Penteado, Renault Sport F1 Team Support Leader “A fantastic race from both drivers. Romain was very strong in the first part of the race, controlling the pace and managing the fuel and tyres very well. We reused his engine from Singapore and everything worked perfectly. We were on the limit with Kimi’s engine with some of the richer fuel mixes to help him get through the field and maximize performance. A great result all round.”

Romain Grosjean took fourth position whilst Kimi Räikkönen set the tenth fastest time in qualifying for tomorrow’s Korean Grand Prix. Both drivers gain a grid position thanks to a penalty for Mark Webber, meaning Romain starts from third and Kimi ninth. Romain progressed through the first qualifying session using only the medium compound tyre, enabling him to have two runs on new super soft tyres in Q3. Kimi was fastest in Q1, but suffered excessive understeer on his solitary flying lap of the final session to leave him tenth. Kimi Räikkönen, E21-05 Q: P10 (Starts P9), 1:38.822 FP3: P6, 1:38.701 “I made a mistake on my only set of new tyres in the final qualifying session so my lap wasn’t fast enough for a better position, which eventually meant I ended up tenth and will start from ninth position tomorrow. We’ve had a bit of understeer in the car so I’ve struggled a little all weekend. If you look at the long run pace yesterday we should have a stronger race, but obviously we have to see how the weather turns out. We hope to do better tomorrow.” Romain Grosjean, E21-04 Q: P4 (Starts P3), 1:37.531 FP3: P8, 1:38.857 “Our aim was to be up there fighting with the Mercedes today and that’s exactly where we were. The Red Bulls were always going to be quick, so to be reasonably close to them in terms of the times is not too bad. Gaining a place on the grid just because another driver has been penalised is not how you want to move forwards, but I’ve had to cope with it before myself and it’s part of the sport. Of course, it will be an advantage for us as it means we’ll start on the clean side of the track. Tomorrow will be interesting in terms of what effect the tyre degradation has, but our race pace looked strong yesterday so we’re aiming for a good result.” Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director How was qualifying for the team? We’re very happy with Romain’s qualifying position after a textbook performance through all three sessions with everything going absolutely to plan. He soaked up the extra pressure to get through the first session using only the medium compound tyre and the benefit of doing that was having two sets of the super soft in the final session. Kimi didn’t have the luxury of two runs in the final session, and unfortunately his crucial lap didn’t quite come off as planned. As ever, he will be a formidable force in the race so we’ve got good expectations for tomorrow. What are the strategy considerations? It’s a circuit where you can overtake with DRS; not the easiest, but certainly not the hardest. That said, tomorrow’s race will be about tyres – in particular the front right which has a very hard time – so managing the wear and performance will be an important consideration. What do we think looking to the skies? The threat of storms has certainly abated somewhat since the beginning of the week, however I think we can still expect to catch the outskirts of the bad weather meaning we could see some rain overnight and early tomorrow morning if not for the race itself. Of course, this is something we’re monitoring closely.

Romain Grosjean ended the first day of practice for the Korean Grand Prix with the sixth fastest time whilst team-mate Kimi Räikkönen placed eighth in Yeongam, South Korea. Both drivers completed their Friday programmes as scheduled, with Kimi’s crew having a busy lunchtime repairing his E21 after an excursion into the barriers at the end of the first practice session. While Kimi was unhurt in the incident, the damage incurred by the car necessitated the replacement of the front and rear wings, as well as suspension components on both left-hand corners of the car. Technical programme notes: Kimi’s car spent additional time in the garage at the start of FP2 as his crew completed the repairs necessary after contact with the barriers at the end of FP1. Pirelli’s medium [white] tyre was used in the morning, with the medium and super soft [red] compound used in the afternoon session. What we learned today: The E21 demonstrated strong potential on both varieties of tyre, with a smaller difference in performance between each compound compared to that seen in Singapore. Kimi Räikkönen, E21-05 Free Practice 1: P8, 1:40.677, 15 laps Free Practice 2: P8, 1:39.757, 33 laps “Obviously it didn’t help that I destroyed part of the car this morning; maybe I ran out of talent there! It didn’t cause too much damage and the car was fine for the second practice, even if the guys had quite a hurry to fix it. They did a good job and we managed to complete everything we wanted today. The car feels quite strong – especially on the long runs – so that’s good news for the race. On the short runs it wasn’t exactly as I wanted, but we still have some time to make improvements there.” Romain Grosjean, E21-04 Free Practice 1: P7, 1:40.396, 19 laps Free Practice 2: P6, 1:39.226, 34 laps “My first two runs this morning weren’t perfect, so we decided to change a few things during the break but that didn’t exactly go to plan either. Finding the right balance for a full lap here is quite tricky as the different sectors are quite unique from each other, but eventually we returned to a more conventional setup for a run on the option tyres and the car felt much better. This circuit is a bit more front limited which doesn’t particularly help us, but hopefully the track evolution will bring it towards us a bit more tomorrow. Half a second to the leaders is a bit of a gap and they look pretty quick, so I think top five is a realistic target in qualifying, but of course we’ll do our best to catch them.” Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: “It was a fairly routine Friday aside from Kimi’s small off this morning which looked a lot worse than it was, resulting primarily in some front trackrod and rear corner damage for us to repair. We lost some time at the start of the second session whilst the rectification work was completed, but this didn’t impact on our programme today. We completed long runs with both cars in the afternoon to give us plenty of data for analysis ahead of Sunday. As illustrated a few times, the track was quite slippery to start the weekend, which is something we expect to see improve throughout tomorrow and Sunday. The tyres are behaving as expected, with a smaller performance difference between the two compounds than what we saw in Singapore, which is in line with our predictions.”

Kimi Räikkönen drove through the pain barrier to finish in a superb third position, whilst Romain Grosjean felt pain of a different kind after a forced retirement whilst battling for his own potential podium finish in the Singapore Grand Prix. Both drivers put in fantastic performances around the tight confines of the Marina Bay Street Circuit; one of the most gruelling races of the season. Kimi remains in fourth place in the Drivers’ Championship on 149 points – now just 2 points behind Lewis Hamilton with Mark Webber a further 19 points behind – whilst Romain remains eighth on 57 points. The team remains in fourth place in the Constructors’ Championship on 206 points from Ferrari’s 267 and well ahead of fifth-placed McLaren who have 76 points. Kimi started from P13 with a set of scrubbed super soft tyres, changing to new super softs on lap 10 and new medium compound tyres on lap 25. Romain started from P3 on a scrubbed set of super soft tyres, changing to a scrubbed set of super softs on lap 15, a new set of mediums tyres on lap 25 and finally stopping for a further set of scrubbed mediums on lap 33 while his engine air tank was refilled. He retired on lap 37 due to lack of engine air pressure. Kimi Räikkönen, P3, E21-05 “It’s been a difficult weekend, so to finish on the podium is a good result. The car felt good and it could have been even better if I’d been able to do more work in practice, but even with a better qualifying performance I think third was the maximum we could achieve today. The problem with my back hasn’t been ideal, but it felt much better than yesterday and I didn’t really notice it in the race, only afterwards. I have some time to recover before Korea and we were pretty strong there last year, so let’s see what we can do next time out.” Romain Grosjean, DNF, E21-04 “The race was going pretty well and I think a second or third place finish was a realistic prospect. We had a good strategy pitting under the safety car and we should have finished well, but unfortunately today my engine had other ideas. We lost air pressure and the team tried to fix the problem by topping it up with an additional pit stop, but that didn’t work so we had to retire which is never what you want to happen.” Eric Boullier, Team Principal “Once more Kimi drove an exceptionally strong race today – even without considering his back pain – whilst the team did an amazing job with the strategy for both drivers. Were it not for Romain’s engine problems we should have had both cars home in third and fourth. It’s unfortunate that Romain had the problem with the pneumatic system of his engine as he showed strong pace in the race after putting in superb performances on both Friday and Saturday. This level of downforce suits our car and that’s the level we’re running for the remaining tracks this season; we will fight for podiums for the rest of the year I’m sure.” Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director “Another day of mixed fortunes and commiserations for Romain who had a superb weekend, stymied by a reliability issue in the race. On the other hand, huge congratulations to Kimi for a typical ‘never-give-up’ race carving his way through the field nicely to put the back problems which have affected him all weekend right behind him. Our race strategy worked perfectly today and we were able to jump a number of other cars well.” Ricardo Penteado, Renault Sport F1 Team Support Leader “The team did a great job with the strategy today; getting Kimi from 13th to 3rd on a track you can’t overtake on is a real achievement. Unfortunately Romain retired with an engine pneumatic system problem. Air consumption had been inconsistent throughout the race so we pitted him to top the air back up, however the consumption remained high so we were forced to retire the car on the next lap. We’ll look at why it happened as it was a brand new engine and put solutions in place to ensure it does not happen again.”

Romain Grosjean qualified in third position at the Marina Bay Street Circuit as Kimi Räikkönen pushed through the pain barrier to take thirteenth on tomorrow’s Singapore Grand Prix grid. Romain equalled his season-best qualifying position from the Hungarian Grand Prix of P3 with a lap time of 1min 43.058secs, leaving only the Red Bull of championship leader Sebastian Vettel and the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg ahead of him. Kimi suffered from back aggravations in today’s practice session and participated in qualifying after attention from physiotherapists. Kimi Räikkönen, E21-05. Q: P13, 1:44.658. FP3: P12, 1:46.147 Unfortunately today didn’t go to plan as the issue with my back meant I couldn’t really drive properly this morning, so we didn’t get everything done like we wanted in the practice session. It’s still quite painful and there wasn’t much more I could do in qualifying when you take that combination of things into account. It’s not the first time I’ve driven with a problem and it probably won’t be the last time either, but I’ll be on the grid tomorrow and we’ll try to get the maximum from where we are at the start. Romain Grosjean, E21-04. Q: P3, 1:43.058. FP3: P2, 1:44.364 After all the issues we had yesterday the team did a fantastic job to get the car running well and also to find a good setup despite having done so few laps. The car felt good all day; enough that we were confident in taking a risk during Q1 by not running the option tyres. It was a great strategy call that really paid off, and I think with a little more luck on the out lap we could maybe even have been one place higher. Sebastian [Vettel] looks to have a pretty clear advantage, but we’ve got lots of fresh tyres for tomorrow so a podium is definitely the target. Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: How was qualifying for the team? We have mixed feelings today. It’s unfortunate that Kimi had a problem with his back which caused him quite a bit of pain and affected his performance, whilst Romain enjoyed a pretty much perfect day after all the car troubles he had yesterday. FP3 went well for him, then qualifying went completely to plan. We’re very happy with third on the grid and looking forward to a strong race tomorrow. What’s changed with the car to make it qualify better here? We knew the last two races would be difficult for our car and so they proved to be, but we were expecting better performance once we got to the higher downforce tracks such as Singapore and this has also transpired. What are the strategic permutations tomorrow? Our long run pace was very good yesterday with Kimi second on pace only to the Red Bulls. Sebastian [Vettel] will be hard to beat as he’s in very good form, but there’s no reason why a podium for Romain is not possible and we have seen some storming drives through the field from Kimi in the past too. We could be in for an exciting and rewarding race.

Romain Grosjean ended the first evening of practice for the Singapore Grand Prix with the fifth fastest lap – despite missing considerable amounts of track time – whilst Kimi Räikkönen set the fifth fastest time in the first session and eighth quickest in the second. A mere thousandth of a second separated Kimi and Romain after their first outing on the Marina Bay Circuit. The sessions were characterised by hot and humid conditions with a distinct lack of sunlight given the evening timetable in Singapore. Technical programme notes: Both cars ran with the original length wheelbase configuration E21 in the latest slimline bodywork specification. Romain’s car spent additional time in the garage in the first session, as work was undertaken on steering rack balancing. Both cars changed brake cooling packages for the second session. Romain’s car spent additional time in the garage at the start of FP2 due to a suspected brake master cylinder issue and then ended the session early due to a hydraulic leak. Pirelli’s medium [white] tyre was used in the morning, with the medium and super soft [red] compound slick tyres used in the afternoon session. What we learned today: The E21 demonstrated strong potential using both tyre compounds. Kimi Räikkönen, E21-03 Free practice 1: P5, 1:48.354, 18 laps Free practice 2: P8, 1:45.778, 32 laps “It was a pretty decent day. The car felt okay, but I had some traffic on my fast lap on the softer tyres so I wasn’t able to set a faster lap. The car isn’t too bad and there are still some places where we can make it faster. The times don’t matter on Friday so we’ll see what happens tomorrow.” Romain Grosjean, E21-02 Free practice 1: P6, 1:48.355, 12 laps Free practice 2: P5, 1:45.411, 18 laps “We had a lot of problems today with the car which meant I didn’t complete many laps. It wasn’t the ideal situation, but nevertheless the baseline we have here is pretty good. Hopefully we can get on top of the issues we had and have a strong car for qualifying as track position is pretty important here. Tyre degradation was better than we expected with the super soft performing well, so we’ll have to look closely at the data for the rest of the weekend.” Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: “It was quite a difficult day for us today with Romain missing a reasonable amount of running in his car, but he made the laps he did complete really count. He seemed to get to grips with his car and the track very well considering the circumstances. The E21 looks reasonably competitive with both drivers pretty happy. We need to dial out some understeer on Kimi’s car and once Romain has some more track time we should be well placed for the rest of the weekend.”

Lotus F1 Team fought back from a disappointing qualifying session yesterday to show strong race pace, finishing the Italian Grand Prix in eighth and eleventh positions. After an eventful first corner, Kimi Räikkönen pitted for a new front nose cone and tyres whilst Romain Grosjean continued despite a rear-end onslaught from another car. Following his first lap pit stop, Kimi was the second fastest car through the race, with a determined drive including multiple fastest laps. Kimi finished in eleventh, hounding the McLaren of Jenson Button ahead, whilst Romain finished in eighth place, withstanding considerable pressure from Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes behind. Kimi remains in fourth in the Drivers’ Championship on 134 points, with Lewis Hamilton ahead on 141 and Mark Webber behind on 130 points. The team remains in fourth place in the Constructors’ Championship on 191 points from Ferrari’s 245 and well ahead of fifth-placed McLaren who have 66 points. Kimi started from P11 with a new set of hard tyres, changing to new medium compound tyres on lap 1 where he also received a new front wing, and scrubbed medium tyres on lap 30. Romain started from P13 on a new set of medium tyres, changing to a new set of hard compound tyres on lap 20. Kimi Räikkönen, P11, E21-03 “When I lost the front wing I had to come in and change to a new one meaning an extra pit stop which we hadn’t planned. It’s not just the time in the pits, but you have to work your way through the field afterwards. We did a pretty good job of that and the car felt good, surprisingly good given where we were on Saturday. Unfortunately, there’s not much you can do after the start to the race we had.” Romain Grosjean, P8, E21-02 “It isn’t easy to follow another car with the aero configurations that we had for the race here but we got the best result we could have done having started in P13. Unfortunately we had a poor pit stop where we had an electronic problem and the light didn’t turn to green, so we lost a few seconds there. I think we could have come out in front of the two McLarens and the Toro Rosso, which would have made things a bit easier for a stronger result. I had a good battle with Lewis on the last lap. I think we did the best we could here in Monza and I hope that for Singapore we can get back to the level of performance that we had in Budapest.” Eric Boullier, Team Principal "If you want to be competitive for the Championships you need to be able to fight every weekend at the front on Saturday as well as on Sunday. The positive from this weekend is that we showed fantastic race pace and both drivers drove exceptionally well. Romain withstood great pressure and performed great overtaking moves on both McLarens. Kimi fought back from a first lap incident in a superb display of his talents. The negative from this weekend is that we couldn’t qualify where we needed to be. The results at the end of the race aren’t rewarding for the team, but there are plenty of positives to take from the final European race of the season and we head to the final flyaway races with plenty of fight.” Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director “Our damage was done yesterday by our poor qualifying positions. We actually had good race pace today and if you compare Kimi and Sebastian Vettel’s races, after Kimi’s first stop we only lost a second to Seb and we gained four seconds on Fernando [Alonso]. Seb won the race and Fernando finished second, so that gives an illustration of what could have been. We obviously will be dissecting where we lost the pace on Saturday and have some solace that we don’t visit another circuit of this level of downforce for the rest of the season as it certainly wasn’t beneficial for us in terms of qualifying. Starting where we did put us in the middle of the pack where incidents happen on the first lap and that was the case for both our drivers, but both made great recoveries.” Ricardo Penteado, Renault Sport F1 Team Support Leader “Monza is always a tough race for engines with a high percentage of the lap spent flat out. Today the race was even harder. Kimi’s early stop meant he went down the pack and had to fight to regain position. Fuel consumption was considerably higher than that expected as a result, so we had to manage the settings very carefully to give him the power he needed to fight without running dry. Sadly he missed the points by under a second – on the strength of his drive he really deserved it and the car had the pace to score. Romain did a great job to keep hold of eighth, which is a more representative indication of where we are this weekend.”

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.

Kimi Räikkönen ended the day with the third fastest time on the opening day of the Italian Grand Prix weekend, with Romain Grosjean fourth in the order with an identical lap time of 1min 25.116secs. Sunny weather characterised both of today’s sessions at the historic Autodromo di Monza. Technical programme notes Kimi ran all day with the longer chassis configuration E21. Both cars ran with the slimline rear bodywork package in low drag Monza. Kimi evaluated a different front wing in the afternoon. Pirelli’s hard (orange) tyre was used in the morning and the hard and medium (white) compound slick tyres were used in the afternoon session. What we learned today: The E21 demonstrated good pace in all configurations utilised. Kimi Räikkönen, E21-03 Free practice 1: P5, 1:25.941, 22 laps Free practice 2: P3, 1:25.116, 36 laps Kimi: “The car felt pretty normal for me today and we’re going to look at the data in order to make a decision on whether to use today’s specification or the older one. It doesn’t feel much different to me so it’ll be a decision based on what the data says. Today we were a little surprised to be third fastest, but we’re still quite far away from the fastest cars. There are still some areas for improvement so hopefully we can find more speed for tomorrow.” Romain Grosjean, E21-02 Free practice 1: P12, 1:26.295, 23 laps Free practice 2: P4, 1:25.116, 40 laps Romain: “We had a productive day today. The timesheets showed that Kimi and I were very close, however that doesn’t necessarily mean a lot. Kimi tested the new long wheelbase car and from today’s work we have sent data back to the factory and we will see what the outcome is when analysis comes back. As drivers, our feedback on the feel of the car is also key. It is hard to precisely compare the two though; it could provide more brake stability which is what we all want here in Monza, however each driver also has their own braking style.” Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: “That was a fairly straightforward Friday for us with both cars evenly matched and both drivers happy. We’ve completed a good amount of low and high fuel runs as well as evaluating the two tyre compounds for race strategy. Romain was happy on longer runs whilst Kimi’s afternoon session was slightly interrupted with an engine water pressure issue during his long run, but this was no big drama. Overall, the car looks quick, reliable and we’re happy today.”

Lotus F1 Team endured a difficult Belgian Grand Prix, with brake failure leading to the retirement of Kimi Räikkönen whilst Romain Grosjean employed a one-stop strategy to finish eighth. Kimi’s DNF was the first of his Lotus F1 Team career and his first retirement in 39 races. It was his first non-points finish in 28 races and only his second non-points finish since driving for the team. Kimi now drops to fourth in the Drivers’ Championship on 134 points, having been overtaken by second-placed Fernando Alonso [151] and third-placed Lewis Hamilton [139]. The team remains in fourth place in the Constructors’ Championship on 187 points from Ferrari’s 218. Kimi started from P8 with a scrubbed set of medium tyres, changing to scrubbed medium compound tyres on lap 14. He retired on lap 25. Romain started from P7 on a scrubbed set of medium tyres, changing to a new set of hard compound tyres on lap 22. Kimi Räikkönen, DNF, E21-03 “I had a brake failure so there was really no point in trying to continue. We both got good starts off the line but there wasn’t enough space into the first corner where I went over the kerb and lost some time, but after that I was pushing as hard as I could. There were some brake issues at the beginning of the race but we were managing them and it was going okay until we had to retire. We’ve finished a lot of races and had some good reliability; one day your luck has to run out and today was that day.” Romain Grosjean, P8, E21-02 “We had a difficult first lap where we lost a few positions and then dropped back a couple more places in the incident with Sergio [Perez]. We decided on a one stop strategy today and with the new tyres I felt that the grip was much higher than before but I knew that it would be difficult to get the time back. We tried something different and you never know; had it rained in the middle of the race we could have been well-placed to take advantage. It is good to finish the race without any mistakes, even if eighth place isn’t what we were hoping for this weekend; it’s also a shame that Kimi didn’t finish the race, but we go to Monza hopeful of better things.” Eric Boullier, Team Principal "It was a disappointing weekend, with qualifying not as good as we had expected and then a difficult first lap in the race. Kimi suffered from a brake failure which, of course, is a concern. We already believe we know why it happened and we will investigate this in detail to prevent the situation arising again. Romain finished eighth which clearly isn’t the sort of position we hope for at the end of a race weekend. Today we lost some pace and part of that might be due to the low temperatures. We must now look ahead, learn from this weekend and make sure that next year we can deliver on a medium downforce track.” Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director “It was a difficult race for us. We didn’t have the pace in qualifying yesterday and didn’t seem to have the pace today. We had a difficult first lap where we lost a few places and found ourselves sat behind slower cars. After that it was difficult to make up any ground. Unfortunately Kimi retired from the race with a front brake failure which we are now investigating. Romain was on a one stop strategy which was the right thing to do today. We look forward to starting again in Monza where we will bring new developments to the car can hopefully have a better weekend.” Ricardo Penteado, Renault Sport F1 Team Support Leader “Spa is traditionally very hard on engines, with long sections at full throttle, changes of altitude and compressions putting the engines under pressure. The RS27 has performed well all weekend and we were hopeful of a better result. The starting positions put us down in the pack and despite Romain’s efforts we could not make up any places. It’s a shame for Kimi but at least we come away with some points this weekend, which is important for the championship.”

Romain Grosjean qualified seventh with Kimi Räikkönen eighth after a rain tempered qualifying session for tomorrow’s Belgian Grand Prix. Both drivers looked particularly potent in the dry Q2 session – with Kimi setting the fastest time – before rain returned for the top ten decider. Kimi Räikkönen, E21-03. Q: P8, 2:03.390. FP3: P10, 1:49.008 “When it was dry in the second qualifying session we were fastest, so if it’s dry tomorrow we should be okay for the race; even though we will not start from a great position. The last qualifying session was wet and our car does not give its best in these types of conditions. Any lap which came right at the end of the session would have helped, but if it stayed dry it would have helped more. Tomorrow is another day so we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.” Romain Grosjean, E21-05. Q: P7, 2:03.081. FP3: P8, 1:48.967 “It wasn’t an easy session today with the changing weather and while it’s good to be in the top ten, it wasn’t exactly what we were hoping for. It was a big challenge to know what condition the track was in, to make the right decisions at the right time and to adjust the speed according to the weather. At the end of qualifying you needed to be on the on track at the right time. I’ll work with the engineers later to assess why Kimi was a bit quicker in the dry, where we can improve in the wet, and options in terms of strategy. I’ll give my best in the race tomorrow.” Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: How was qualifying for the team? It was a frustrating session for the team. The weather conditions were difficult, but the same for everyone. We displayed great pace in the dry with Kimi fastest in Q2, but unfortunately the rain returned for the final phase. We tried to get a lap in right at the start on dry tyres, but the rain beat the start of the session so we had to change to intermediates. Seventh and eighth on the grid isn’t where we want to be, but at least we’re in the top ten. What are the strategic permutations tomorrow? As we qualified on intermediate tyres we can start a dry race on either dry compound. A dry race would be better for us, but we can’t influence the weather. If it’s a wet race, there are many different permutations and conditions possible so we’ll be fighting for the very best result we can achieve.

Kimi Räikkönen took second place at the Hungaroring to jump back into second in the Drivers’ Championship after a hot and hard-fought Hungarian Grand Prix. Kimi used a two-stop strategy for his sixth podium of the season, spurring the advances of Sebastian Vettel in the final laps. Romain Grosjean drove a storming race, withstanding a drive-through penalty and a twenty second addition to his race time to finish in sixth position. Kimi is now second in the Drivers’ Championship with 134 points to Sebastian’s 172. The team was the second highest scoring in the Constructors’ Championship today, remaining in fourth place on 183 points, but closing the gap to Ferrari on 194. Kimi started from P6 with a scrubbed set of soft tyres, changing to new medium compound tyres on laps 13 and 42. Romain started from P3 on a scrubbed set of soft tyres, changing to new sets of medium compound tyres on laps 13, 25 and 47. He made a pit lane drive-through on lap 37. Kimi Räikkönen, P2, E21-03 “It was a good race and a good result for the team. The strategy worked well. We did two long stints on the tyres but they weren’t too bad and the car felt strong so it allowed us to make one less stop. In the last few laps the rears were a bit on edge, but apart from that it was ok. Sebastian [Vettel] got the run on me a couple of times but luckily it was in places that you can’t really overtake. The main positive is that we gained a few points to Seb in the Championship. For sure we could have maybe closed the gap a little more with a win, but anything we can get back will help. We’re only halfway through the season and it will be hard to catch up, but anything can still happen so we’ll keep fighting until the end.” Romain Grosjean, P6, E21-02 “For sure this is one that got away, but I’m very happy with my race and I honestly don’t think I could have done much more. Maybe the strategy didn’t quite work how we wanted, but the car felt really good and it was the traffic that cost us. Without this maybe there would never have been a drive-through penalty which for sure didn’t help. I haven’t seen the footage yet and I thought it was a good move, but unfortunately the stewards took a different view. I’ve no problem with the time-added for the incident with Jenson and I apologised to him afterwards. This could have been the one for me, but we will just have to wait a little bit longer and keep improving like we have been recently to make it happen.” Eric Boullier, Team Principal "Another good result for Kimi today. He drove very well and was backed up by a strong strategy to help him make the podium. Romain was very unfortunate in that we couldn’t quite jump Fernando [Alonso] in the pits which cost him a lot of time, plus the drive-through penalty cost him a far better result. He made a great move at a circuit where overtaking is difficult and he had no room to do anything else. For us the Stewards’ decision was harsh. The most important thing to take from the weekend has been the pace of the car; this circuit is a bit special, and I think there will be some circuits where we have to work a bit harder, but I’m confident we’ll be consistently fighting for podiums at every race weekend in the second half of the season. Red Bull are a long way ahead, but we’ve shown today that they can be beaten so we want to keep pushing them all the way.” Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director “It was a great race today from Kimi – as always. We started the race intending a three-stop strategy, but as the race played out it became clear that a two-stop would give us better possibilities so we switched over to that strategy. Kimi drove superbly to look after his tyres but deliver exactly the pace we needed at the appropriate time. He was rewarded by returning to second in the Drivers’ Championship. I feel really sorry for Romain for what appears to be a very harsh penalty for a fantastic overtaking move on Felipe Massa. Yes, he ran off the track, but he had nowhere else to go. It certainly seemed like good racing to me; were it not for the drive-through penalty, we would have had two cars on the podium again.” Ricardo Penteado, Renault Sport F1 Team Support Leader “We had high expectations after our strong qualifying positions. Kimi drove a fantastic race with an aggressive strategy of two pit stops which was successful with a podium second place. Romain was very fast all the weekend but with his penalty he lost any chance to get to the podium. We controlled the engine temperatures during all the race and we demonstrated one more time that the Lotus-Renault package is really very fast. The summer break will be very good and we are looking forward to come back on track at Spa.”

Romain Grosjean will take third place on the grid with Kimi Räikkönen lining up sixth for tomorrow’s Hungarian Grand Prix, after a hot qualifying session at the Hungaroring. Both drivers are one place behind where they qualified here in 2012 which resulted for a 2-3 finish for the team; Kimi coming home just ahead of Romain on that occasion. Kimi Räikkönen, E21-03. Q: P6, 1:19.851. FP3: P11, 1:21.589. “It hasn’t been the easiest weekend for me so far. Maybe the new tyres are a bit different – especially on the front – so it’s been hard to find a good setup. We’re getting there little by little and the car was definitely better in qualifying than at any other point this weekend. Obviously P6 is not ideal, but it’s better than we have seen sometimes so we’ll try and see what we can do tomorrow. It’s not so easy to overtake here, but we have seen in past years that if you can run with the tyres well you can make a lot of places, so let’s see what we can do.” Romain Grosjean, E21-05. Q: P3, 1:19.595. FP3: P1, 1:20.730. “It’s been a good weekend so far with the car consistently showing strong pace. Setting the fastest time in practice this morning was a good sign, and the car was handling really well throughout each qualifying session. Lewis set a very quick time, but we’re not too far from Sebastian [Vettel] and anything could happen in the race depending on the tyres. I think tomorrow will be very open and a lot will depend on strategy, traffic and things like that, so if we can put everything together there’s the strong possibility for a good result.” Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: How was qualifying for the team? We’re reasonably happy but – of course – we always want more. Everything went pretty much as we expected. For Romain, his single lap and long run pace has been strong and Kimi is much more on top of his car than yesterday. From third and sixth there’s no reason why we can’t have a strong race with both drivers. Who do we see as the main rivals for a good result? We see Sebastian Vettel as our main challenger in the race. The Mercedes did go well in Monaco on a tight and twisty circuit – in the race as well as in qualifying – but here tyre degradation should be more of a factor. This should help us in our fight for a good result. We saw some sideways moments from Kimi in the last corner; any concerns? It happened a couple of times and certainly makes for nice slow motion television. He has complained of the rear sliding which has been something we’ve focused on eliminating through setup tweaks. Romain just missed out on P2; how much of a difference is it here between being on the front or second row? Third is actually almost as good as second here as you start on the clean side of the grid and it’s a very dusty circuit. Lewis [Hamilton] and Sebastian were just too strong for us in qualifying, but there’s potential for us to have a very good race tomorrow.

Romain Grosjean set the third fastest time on the opening day of the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend, with Kimi Räikkönen third in the morning and eighth in the afternoon after a productive day of running at the Hungaroring. Both cars ran with the team’s slimline bodywork configuration and without the ‘Device’ for what was both drivers’ first taste of the latest medium and soft compound Pirelli tyres. Technical Programme Notes: Both cars ran with new mirrors, rear floor updates and exhaust configurations. Pirelli’s medium compound tyre was used in the morning, the medium and soft in the afternoon. Cooling levels were monitored closely in the high temperatures. What We Learned Today: Setup was modified for the latest specification tyres. Soft tyre performance and long run performance were both favourable today, with evident areas for performance gains tomorrow. Kimi Räikkönen, E21-03 Free practice 1: P3, 1:23.010, 20 laps Free practice 2: P8, 1:22.011, 32 laps Kimi: “It wasn’t ideal today but it wasn’t that bad either. We took a bit of time to understand the new tyres and it was also very hot. It’s too early to say if the heat will suit us with these new tyres, but we’ll soon have a better idea. I had some traffic in the afternoon and so wasn’t able to set a fast lap on new tyres, plus we have some areas to improve on with the setup. We’ll try to do the best that we can in qualifying and we’ll see where we are. If we get the car right we should be ok tomorrow.” Romain Grosjean, E21-02 Free practice 1: P5, 1:23.111, 20 laps Free practice 2: P3, 1:21.417, 40 laps Romain: “It’s been a good day overall. I didn’t get to try the new tyres at Silverstone so the main focus was to work on getting the most from them which all went ok. To be honest they’re not really night and day from the old ones, which is good as it means we haven’t had to change too much. There’s still a bit of graining and degradation to deal with but that’s normal. Our pace looks pretty good on both compounds, but the field is quite close so it’s hard to say where we are. We’ll just keep doing our best to find the right compromise for qualifying and the race and see where we stand at the end of the weekend.” Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: “A good solid Friday for us with nothing untoward to note – save for a leaky drinks system – during the course of the day. The car is clearly working well here and we have no concerns about the heat. Kimi’s afternoon time isn’t representative as he got caught up with a McLaren on his fast lap and we have no concerns about our long or short run pace. We paid particular attention to the various temperature levels on the car to ensure cooling levels are sufficient for Sunday and we’re happy with all the data we’ve seen so far.”

With four second-place finishes and one victory in Hungary, our Finn reckons he knows what’s needed for a strong weekend in Budapest. What makes a good weekend in Hungary? I have finished second in Hungary too many times, so I know how important it is to lead the race after the first corner. DRS or not, it’s never easy to overtake at the Hungaroring. To get the weekend right, you have to have good sessions in FP1, FP2 and FP3, then a strong qualifying session and finally a perfect start to the race. But your only win here came in 2005 starting from fourth on the grid? I got a very good start to be second at the end of the first lap and everything went well from there. What's the atmosphere like? It is always nice to go to Hungary. The circuit is not the most difficult of them all, but it is a really challenging venue as it’s usually very hot which makes it a demanding race. Of course, the heat has helped us with the car so far this year so that will make things better, but only if it’s a win will you not suffer from the heat. What are the key elements to a fast car at the Hungaroring? A fast car. It’s such a slow, twisty circuit, so two things are really important there; good turn-in and good traction. If you have those, you have a strong car for the race. How do you ensure a good start? Obviously you need to get to the front in the qualifying, but also avoid the dirty side of the track on the grid. When you look back through the races this season, it seems the dirty side of the track is a real disadvantage in the starts. In some ways this is viewed as a "home" Grand Prix for you? Many times Hungary has been called as the Grand Prix of Finland. A lot of Finns go to this race every year and it is always nice to see the blue and white flags waving. Any more thoughts after your second place in the German Grand Prix? The points were good and we had a strong car. Again we saw that warmer temperatures suited us and we usually get hot weather in Budapest so that should be a good thing. Of course, you never know until you have driven the track in this year’s car. In Germany, my radio wasn’t working properly and I got stuck behind the Mercedes which didn’t help my race. The performance of the cars was pretty close and it’s easier to overtake at the Nürburgring than it is at the Hungaroring, so we will need to qualify well. Was missing your final pit stop there an option? My tyres felt pretty okay when we came to change them, but you cannot know how long they would have lasted or what would have happened in the race. It didn’t help that we had the radio problem as my engineers couldn’t hear me, although I could hear them asking me the questions. It’s easy to say ‘we should have done this’, but you never know for sure unless you try that strategy. We were right with Seb [Vettel] at the end of the race through coming in and putting on the soft tyres, but maybe if we had done things a bit differently we would have been slightly in front rather than slightly behind. This was your best ever result in Germany; Does it taste any better than the previous ones or is it only victory that makes the difference? Obviously we are here to try and win races. We couldn’t in Germany because we were not fast enough, but for the team it was a good result after a couple of quite difficult races. We lost some more points to the lead as Seb won, but it’s still a long season and if we keep putting ourselves in a position to at least be fighting for first place then I think we can do it again. Can you go one better in Budapest? There’s no point speculating before you get there. Hopefully we get the result we are looking for. It would be nice to take the break after this race and recharge the batteries in the middle of the season with a good result on the board, but most importantly, it would be good to have the points.

Kimi Räikkönen and Romain Grosjean returned to the podium with Kimi taking second and Romain third in a fast-paced German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring. Kimi finished just 1.008 seconds behind race winner Sebastian Vettel, who took his first home Grand Prix victory. Kimi remains in third position in the Drivers’ Championship with 116 points, but closes the gap from Fernando Alonso (123) to seven points. The team was the highest scoring in the Constructors’ Championship today, remaining in fourth place on 157 points, with Ferrari on 180 in third. Kimi started from P5 with a scrubbed set of soft tyres, changing to new medium compound tyres on laps 8 and 24 and a final set of scrubbed soft tyres on lap 49. Romain started from P4 on a scrubbed set of soft tyres, changing to new sets of medium compound tyres on laps 13, 24 and 40. Kimi Räikkönen, P2, E21-03 “We had a pretty good last stint of the race, but the cars are close on performance so it’s difficult to overtake. Maybe some more laps would have helped us, but the race is only 60 laps so you have to do your best with that. After my first stop I was stuck behind a Mercedes for a while, but once I was past the car was pretty good. After the safety car three of us were able to pull away, but we were too close on speed to change the order. It was a good day for the team. Of course, we wanted to win; we couldn’t, but we did score the most points here. The warmer temperatures definitely helped us, so let’s hope for some more hot weather in Budapest.” Romain Grosjean, P3, E21-02 “After some difficult races, everything went right today and it was pretty special when I was leading the race and returning to the podium is naturally a good thing. My car felt great on the first stint with the soft tyres and it’s clear that the summer weather really suits us. Hopefully we’ll have a long summer now in Europe! Letting Kimi past at the end of the race was the sensible thing to do as we were on different strategies and he had more of a chance of going for the win than I did at that point. We didn’t know which tyre would be the best at the end of the race, so we didn’t put all our eggs in one basket.” Eric Boullier, Team Principal "That was a very good race from the team which validates all the hard work which has been going on back at Enstone, so we thank everyone at the factory for their efforts. After three difficult weekends, being on the podium was exactly what we needed. We need to continue like this to make up for lost ground in both championships. The E21 worked very well today and both Kimi and Romain drove superbly. We had a good strategy from the pit wall, some fantastic pit stops, and were it not for losing some time behind both Mercedes, it’s possible that we could have won today. I think we’ll have to ask Pirelli to keep this weekend’s specification of tyres for the rest of the season.” Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director “We’re very happy to be back on the podium again after a short spell of bleak races. Both cars ran faultlessly from start to finish and it did look like we could be able to take the fight to Sebastian [Vettel] but ultimately we didn’t quite manage it. Kimi was held up by Lewis [Hamilton] after his first pit stop but came back fighting at the end of the race. Romain did a fantastic job managing his first set of tyres which enabled him to make some great gains. We did consider running Kimi on a two-stop strategy but we could see the tyre performance dropping. We expected slightly more performance from his final set of soft tyres, but he was right with Seb at the end.” Ricardo Penteado, Renault Sport F1 Team Support Leader “A great race from both drivers, with incredible pace. It was a shame that the traffic pushed us back from the outright win but a double podium is still a great result, and more than we expected going into the weekend. Engine-wise, it’s been a good Grand Prix, although temperatures were hotter than expected. The result shows the engine-chassis package is back to its best and we’ll look to keep this going to the next race.”