Sunday: Major setback for Lotus as Räikkönen retires
Difficult race this Sunday for the two Lotus drivers. Indeed, Räikkönen, facing brake problems, was forced to retire for the first time this season, while Grosjean finished eighth after being involved in an incident with Pérez. A weekend to forget for Lotus.
Romain Grosjean – 8th:
« We had a tough first lap where we lost a few positions, notably due to the incident with Pérez. We decided to go for a one-stop strategy today and with the new tires, I felt that the grip was much higher than in the past, but I knew it would be difficult to make up the lost time. We tried something different because you never know; if it had rained in the middle of the race, we could have been well positioned to take advantage. It’s good to finish the race without any mistakes, even though eighth place is not what we hoped for this weekend, it’s also a shame that Kimi didn’t finish the race, but we’re going to Monza hoping to do better things. »
Kimi Räikkönen – Retirement:
« I had a brake failure, there was really no way to continue. We both got off to a good start on the line but there wasn’t enough room in the first corner where I lost time, but afterwards I pushed as hard as I could. There were some brake issues at the beginning of the race, but we managed them well, and it was going fine until we retired. We’ve finished a lot of races and we have good reliability. There are days when your luck isn’t there, and today was one of those days. »
