Jerez / Kimi Räikkönen has found his bearings

Kimi Räikkönen set the best time on the final day of testing at Jerez, completing a lap in 1'18"148, 0'027 ahead of the Force India VJM06 of Jules Bianchi. Iceman was able to complete 83 laps of the track for his final session and narrowly beat the Frenchman's time to finish at the top of the timesheet. After working yesterday on the settings of the Lotus E21 to better suit his driving style, the 2007 world champion's satisfaction comes mainly from his comfort at the wheel even if the Finn achieved the second absolute time in testing behind Felipe Massa. “We continued our work from the day before and made good progress. We are at the top of the table but that means nothing in testing. We focused on testing the elements of the car but I was able to better adapt the settings to my riding. There's still a lot of work to be done in this area, but that's why we're here. The single-seater looks competitive and we have a pretty clear idea of ​​where we are heading with the developments. Let's wait and see in Barcelona. »

Lotus technical director James Allison is also pleased with the initial test results. But the engineer will still have work to do before tackling the Barcelona tests. “After the mass of work carried out at the factory to prepare the car for winter testing, it is always a relief once testing has started, not because the pressure is off but because we can finally see it evolve in track. It's an exciting moment for the whole team but it's also a nervous tension. We definitely want the performance to be good, but we're also aware of the thousands of potential pitfalls when taking a complex car to a track for the first time. Our first attempts were good. The car seems competitive, and although there are still some issues to be ironed out, we are already delighted with the reliability of the E21. With Jerez behind us, our minds are already on Barcelona who will come in ten days. We have a mountain of work ahead of us but we are looking forward to this new opportunity. »

Results from the last day of testing in Jerez:

1/ Kimi Räikkönen? Lotus? 1'18"148? 83 rounds
2/ Jules Bianchi? Force India? 1'18"175 (+0"027)? 56 rounds
3/ Sebastian Vettel ? Red Bull ? 1'18 »565 (+0 »417)? 96 rounds
4/ Esteban Gutiérrez? Sauber? 1'18"669 (+0"521)? 142 rounds
5/ Jean-Eric Vergne? Toro Rosso ? 1'18 »760 (+0 »612)? 92 rounds
6/ Lewis Hamilton ? Mercedes ? 1'18 »905 (+0 »757)? 145 rounds
7/ Sergio Pérez? McLaren ? 1'18 »944 (+0 »796)? 98 rounds
8/ Valtteri Bottas ? Williams ? 1'18 »851 (+1 »703)? 92 rounds
9/ Pedro de la Rosa? Ferrari ? 1'20 »316 (+2 »168)? 51 rounds
10/ Charles Pic? Caterham? 1'21"105 (+2"957)? 109 rounds
11/ Luiz Razia? Marussia? 1’21”226 (+3”078)? 82 rounds
12/ Paul di Resta? Force India? 1’23”435 (+5”287)? 49 rounds