Sunday: Double Podium for Lotus

Kimi Räikkönen – 2nd

« Second place suits me and it’s a good result for the team. But we’re here to win, and having to fight our way back from a bad position isn’t ideal. My qualifying was rather ugly, but it’s hard to say if a better spot on the grid would have changed anything. Sebastian was faster than us at the end. Not by much, but enough, and his tires were fresher too. So I think it would have been tough to catch up with him anyway. We were closer to the Red Bulls today, but not close enough yet. Some might say the safety car was lucky, but sometimes things go your way, other times they don’t. I had already gained positions before it came out, and if I didn’t have the performance, I wouldn’t have been able to take advantage of it. In the end, it was clear that our pace was enough to keep our opponents behind, so I think it’s deserved. »

Romain Grosjean – 3rd

The result is fantastic for the team. Of course, I would have preferred to climb one step higher, and two steps would have been splendid, but it didn’t turn out that way. My battle with Lewis [Hamilton] was great and I had excellent pace, but the two safety car deployments dashed our hopes of fighting for the victory. After the restart, I should have stayed ahead of Kimi, but it’s my fault he got by. I went a little wide at turn 15 and ran over the astroturf, which was very slippery, giving him an opportunity to attack me. Then, there were yellow flags at turn 3 that prevented me from regaining my position immediately. Of course, I asked the team to let me pass Kimi because I had fresher tires, but they let us fight because that’s our philosophy of fair play. In sectors two and three, we lose a lot of downforce, and since both cars are very close in performance, it’s very hard to overtake. But we are thrilled with this double podium.