Lotus F1 once again showed great potential during qualifying only to fall at the final hurdle. Kimi Raikkonen finished the session in sixth place while team-mate Romain Grosjean ended the day in tenth (and the gravel trap).
Raikkonen revealed a wrong choice with tyres hampered his progress in the final session after comfortably making it through to Q3. “We made a slightly wrong decision by using the full wet and I only had one lap in the restarted final qualifying session with the intermediates, otherwise I think it was possible to have gone faster.”
The Finn also told of electrical problems on his car leading to a faulty KERS system, “We also had a problem with the KERS which we tried to fix during the red flag break. We're in sixth place, which is certainly not a disaster ; but it could have been better.”
“The weather makes it a bit tricky for everybody. It's not easy, especially with the spray and this is even more difficult in race conditions when everyone is fighting for the same piece of track. On the plus side for the fans, it's good fun to watch, even if it's not the nicest weather if you're in a grandstand.”
Romain Grosjean looked strong throughout Q1 and Q2 only to end the session in the gravel trap, making it impossible to improve on his time in Q3, “It's frustrating and I'm very sorry for the team as it looks like we had a strong car, but sometimes mistakes happen” said the Frenchman.
“My lap was not much different from the previous lap but it was different enough for me to go off and the car went backwards into the gravel and then it was stranded. It was very slippery. We deserved better, but we will do our best tomorrow to gain positions to get some good points.
“It will be a long race and starting position doesn't mean as much if there are variable conditions. There's also a benefit from not making it into Q3 as I have a fresh set of intermediate tyres. Let's see what happens tomorrow.”
