Räikkönen: Lotus did not deserve the victory

Lotus weekend F1 Team is greatly saddened by the accident caused by Romain Grosjean, excluded for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza next week. Kimi Räikkönen saves the furniture by taking third place in the race, his position on the grid, after resisting Nico Hulkenberg (Force India) who was less than three seconds behind the Finn at the finish line. The 2007 world champion regretted abandoning the double DRS which could have offered a better top speed to his E20 and the Lotus driver confirmed that he lacked performance in the race.

“We didn’t have enough speed”, recognizes Kimi Räikkönen after the race, the Finn only one point behind Mark Webber and 35 points behind the leader Fernando Alonso. “Considering how difficult the handling of the car was to manage, I am very satisfied to finish in third place. I wasn't expecting an easy race but it turned out to be really difficult. My first few laps with the new tires were good and then the car started to slide. We had put a little more downforce for more grip but I had less speed in a straight line. It's better to finish third than not to finish. We didn't win but we didn't have the speed to win and we didn't deserve to win. We were able to win in the last two events but we could not overtake on these circuits (Germany and Hungary). »

Discover the analysis of the Belgian Grand Prix in the next issue of AUTOhebdo, available from Tuesday in digital version for iPad, PC and Mac, and from Wednesday on newsstands.