Räikkönen: Lotus cannot regain 2 seconds

While Kimi Räikkönen is in the fight for the title, Lotus F1 Team fears having a bad weekend in Singapore even if the E20 has so far shown good performance on the urban circuits. The 2007 world champion only finished the second free practice session in 12th place, more than two seconds behind the reference time set by Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull). His teammate Romain Grosjean was only able to climb to tenth place with two tenths ahead of the Finn. If the car was more effective on the long stints carried out at the end of the session, the gap remains worrying.

“It wasn't the best day, we lacked grip for some reasons”, commented Kimi Räikkönen, closest rival of Lewis Hamilton in the Championship with only one point behind the Briton. “I think we lacked aero downforce and that made today difficult. We're just not fast enough. Maybe we haven't been able to evolve as quickly as others. We encountered the same problems with both types of rubber (soft and super soft). It always feels better when you put new tires on at the start. We can improve tomorrow but not enough to take back two seconds. Hopefully we find something tomorrow that can make us a little happier than right now. If we stay at this pace (this season), I will have no chance of being titled. There are still a few races left and we can progress. »