Japanese GP: Räikkönen expected more

After his spin in qualifying, which did not allow him to do better than eighth fastest, Kimi Räikkönen had a difficult Sunday in Japan. From the first turn, the Finn came into contact with the F2012 of Fernando Alonso, thus losing part of its front wing. Even if he was not forced to go through the pits, the Lotus driver F1 Team was unable to find a place at the front and finished in 6th position.

« It's not the result I was hoping for, but unfortunately we weren't performing well enough today, He explains. The departure was very tense. I was next to Fernando [Alonso] at the start and he insisted on the outside until there was no more room to pass. I lost time there and, moreover, my second pit stop was not the best. So overall, a pretty tough race. The positive point is that I was able to score points which allow me to stay in touch in the championship. »

James Allisson, the technical director of the teamenstone, believes that his men will have to work hard to make the most of the potential of the Lotus E20 in order to get back into contention for the championship. “ The best thing to remember from this event is that we scored points, He added. But it's certainly not the weekend we were hoping for on Friday, nor the one we expected after qualifying. I'm disappointed that Kimi had to run with his eyes fixed on the mirrors rather than attacking those in front of him. We have to accept the fact that we need to extract more performance from the E20 if we want to progress in the constructors' championship rather than resting on our comfortable fourth place. It would have been much better to score points with both cars, but unfortunately an incident on the first lap for Romain prevented us from doing so. »