ZitatKIMI RÄIKKÖNEN PREDICTS CLOSE QUALIFYING SESSION IN BARCELONA Fourth fastest after the opening day’s action, Kimi gives us his view on a closely packed field here at the Circuit de Catalunya...
HOW WAS YOUR FRIDAY IN BARCELONA? It was a pretty normal Friday. We tried some new things on the car, ran with some different tyres and we’ll have a look at all the data to see where we think we are. We finished the day not too far off the fastest time, so we can say that the day wasn’t a disaster, but for sure there are some things we have to improve with the car which is normal after the first day’s running.
TIMES ARE PRETTY TIGHT AT THE FRONT OF THE PACK TODAY; SHOULD THAT MAKE QUALIFYING INTERESTING TOMORROW? I guess it’s going to be very close in qualifying too. We aren’t always especially fast in qualifying so we’ll have to see what we can do. We have to get everything right to fight for a good position and then we’ll see where we end up.
HOW DID YOU FIND THE REVISED HARD COMPOUND TYRE? It’s okay.
DOES THE CAR FEEL ANY DIFFERENT WITH THE LATEST UPGRADES? It’s difficult to compare. We were here last time in the winter and the car has changed quite a lot since then. It feels okay on track; we’re looking at the data to see if the new parts are doing what they should, which is the normal way we do these things.
DOES THE CHANGE OF TYRES TO A HARDER ALLOCATION FOR THIS RACE MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE TO YOU? It makes no difference to me; they’re the same for everyone and we all try to get the most performance from them.
Kimi Räikkönen went fourth fastest at the Circuit de Catalunya on the opening day of action for the Spanish Grand Prix. Kimi set a 1min 23.030secs lap on medium compound tyres in the dry afternoon session.
In the changeable conditions of the morning session Romain Grosjean was fourth fastest, but a cracked exhaust precluded him from setting a representative lap on the quicker medium tyres in the afternoon.
Technical programme notes:
[list][*]Both drivers ran with new front and rear wing specifications today. Romain also ran with the older specification front wing for evaluation purposes [/*:m][*] Kimi evaluated new rear suspension components [/*:m][*]Pirelli’s intermediate wet tyre (green) and hard compound dry tyre (orange) were used in the morning session, the hard and medium dry tyres (white) in the afternoon[/*:m][/list:u]
What we learned today:
[list][*]The latest front and rear wings work well [/*:m][*]We are analysing the data from the new rear suspension components [/*:m][*]The E21 looks good on both dry tyre compounds [/*:m][*]Changes to improve the E21’s wet weather performance look to be beneficial[/*:m][/list:u]
Kimi Räikkönen, E21-03 Free Practice 1: P8, 1:26.614, 21 laps Free Practice 2: P4, 1:23.030, 32 laps
Kimi: "It was a pretty normal Friday. We tried some things on the car, ran with some different tyres and we’ll have a look at all the data to see where we think we are. We finished the day not too far off the fastest time, so we can say that the day wasn’t a disaster, but for sure there are some things we have to improve with the car which is normal after the first day’s running."
Romain Grosjean, E21-02 Free Practice 1: P4, 1:26.042, 21 laps Free Practice 2: P18, 1:25.851, 36 laps
Romain: "Today was okay. It may not look great on the timesheets, but we didn’t finish our lap on the medium tyres as I had to come back in. The circuit isn’t an easy one to understand in terms of tyre performance as there is a lot of degradation, and of course this morning the weather conditions made things a bit difficult. We completed a good number of laps to collect as much data as possible, so we’ll be working on the set-up this evening where we should be able to take some steps forwards."
Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: “We’re pretty happy with today’s performance. Romain’s position in the afternoon session is not representative of his potential as a cracked exhaust cost him performance for his run on the softer tyre, but other than that he’s comfortable with how his car is performing. Kimi was happy with the handling and balance of his car and that’s reflected in his pace. The morning rain was actually beneficial for us as it afforded an opportunity to run our latest developments aimed at addressing a relative lack of wet weather pace, and we’re happy with the progress made in this area.”
Once again on a Friday it’s red and yellow lines at the top. And if you look closely, you can see that the cars which look fast at the start tend to start to drop pace about lap 5 or 6. Except Raikkonen. As his stint is shorter that most of the others, it’s not easy to tell what would happen, but this has a bit of a Melbourne look about it. In order to get the best idea of pace, I’ve tried to fit the second half of the curves rather than the first (which is a big difference for Massa), and this leaves Raikkonen comfortably fastest as he doesn’t have a slower part of his curve. I don’t think that the size of the gap is real, but I do think that Kimi is looking very good here. Ferrari look to be next up on race pace, and then Red Bull – with Vettel and Webber producing remarkably similar stints. If they qualify at the front, which they are likely to do, then they will be in the mix for the podium. Then we have a few cars whose pace is not as fast in the early laps, but appear to keep the pace better – and they are Force India, Rosberg, and Bottas (surprisingly). Bottas has been quoted as saying that the upgrades have worked, but the 0.8s gap to Maldonado is a little suspicious – that suggests that some of the pace may well be a lighter fuel load. If not, then Bottas could be in the mix for points, which would be impressive. Hamilton is surprisingly off the back of this group, and leads the next group, which has pretty much everyone else in it. I think that Rosberg’s pace is more representative, but it does suggest that Mercedes is again fourth (or maybe fifth) best here – they are likely to qualify better than that, but a podium finish looks to be unlikely from these runs. This pack is very closely matched, with the most striking feature being that Bianchi is right in the middle of it, with Chilton close. Marussia have tended to go badly in Bahrain, and much better in Barcelona – they could be mixing it with the midfield in the race, if not in qualifying. Caterham look to be returning to the back. The underlying pace as I have it from the model fits is: Raikkonen fastest (but disproportionately so due to the short stint) Alonso +0.6s Grosjean +0.7s Massa +0.8s (first part of his stint is -1.0s, don’t really know what’s going on there) Vettel/Webber +1.1s Rosberg/Bottas/Di Resta/Sutil +1.3s Hamilton/Button +1.9s Maldonado/Gutierrez/Hulkenburg/Vergne +2.1s Perez +2.2s Bianchi +2.3s Ricciardo +2.6s Chilton +2.8s Pic +2.9s van der Garde +3.7s In a lot of ways, this looks like Melbourne at the front. As long as Lotus are in the first three rows, then they look extremely good, even if they three stop like everyone else. Challengers will be Ferrari and Red Bull, who will probably start ahead – which bodes well for a good race.
Although, I get excited when Massa went very quick in sector 2, and would have been great if he had out-qualified the photographer basher, instead misses out by 0.001s. " title="" />
I think Raikkonen will get swamped at the start by both Ferrari's due to them being great of the line, and this is the longest run down into turn 1 from the start line aswell.
As for the top 3, I really don't know how this will play out, being on the front row on here is massive, but we saw how Rosberg dropped massively from the start in Bahrain, but their long runs and tyre wear seemed not bad in practice. Vettel is in a similar category to the Mercedes, not sure what to expect judging by practice, as the Red Bulls tyres as reported seem to drop off more than others the Ferrari and Lotus.
With the grid mixed up, it's hard to predict a winner, the favourites in my opinion are, Vettel, Raikkonen and Alonso. If Alonso passes Raikkonen at the start (which is likely), then I would say him. If Raikkonen at least keeps his poisition, then he'll be in the prime seat. If Vettel, did what he did in Bahrain, and clear the two infront of him, then well...."yeah" " title="wink" />
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Fri May 10, 2013 6:30 pm
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