It seems that there's also more white on his helmet. " title="hmm" />
Missed FP1 & 2 today. Hope to catch FP3 & quali tomorrow. cream" title="icecream" /> Most of all wishing Kimi's steering will be good tomorrow. " title="pray" />
Romain Grosjean ended the first day of practice for the Korean Grand Prix with the sixth fastest time whilst team-mate Kimi Räikkönen placed eighth in Yeongam, South Korea.
Both drivers completed their Friday programmes as scheduled, with Kimi’s crew having a busy lunchtime repairing his E21 after an excursion into the barriers at the end of the first practice session.
While Kimi was unhurt in the incident, the damage incurred by the car necessitated the replacement of the front and rear wings, as well as suspension components on both left-hand corners of the car.
Technical programme notes: • Kimi’s car spent additional time in the garage at the start of FP2 as his crew completed the repairs necessary after contact with the barriers at the end of FP1. • Pirelli’s medium [white] tyre was used in the morning, with the medium and super soft [red] compound used in the afternoon session.
What we learned today: • The E21 demonstrated strong potential on both varieties of tyre, with a smaller difference in performance between each compound compared to that seen in Singapore.
Kimi Räikkönen, E21-05 Free Practice 1: P8, 1:40.677, 15 laps Free Practice 2: P8, 1:39.757, 33 laps
Kimi: “Obviously it didn’t help that I destroyed part of the car this morning; maybe I ran out of talent there! It didn’t cause too much damage and the car was fine for the second practice, even if the guys had quite a hurry to fix it. They did a good job and we managed to complete everything we wanted today. The car feels quite strong – especially on the long runs – so that’s good news for the race. On the short runs it wasn’t exactly as I wanted, but we still have some time to make improvements there.”
Romain Grosjean, E21-04 Free Practice 1: P7, 1:40.396, 19 laps Free Practice 2: P6, 1:39.226, 34 laps
Romain: “My first two runs this morning weren’t perfect, so we decided to change a few things during the break but that didn’t exactly go to plan either. Finding the right balance for a full lap here is quite tricky as the different sectors are quite unique from each other, but eventually we returned to a more conventional setup for a run on the option tyres and the car felt much better. This circuit is a bit more front limited which doesn’t particularly help us, but hopefully the track evolution will bring it towards us a bit more tomorrow. Half a second to the leaders is a bit of a gap and they look pretty quick, so I think top five is a realistic target in qualifying, but of course we’ll do our best to catch them.”
Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: “It was a fairly routine Friday aside from Kimi’s small off this morning which looked a lot worse than it was, resulting primarily in some front trackrod and rear corner damage for us to repair. We lost some time at the start of the second session whilst the rectification work was completed, but this didn’t impact on our programme today. We completed long runs with both cars in the afternoon to give us plenty of data for analysis ahead of Sunday. As illustrated a few times, the track was quite slippery to start the weekend, which is something we expect to see improve throughout tomorrow and Sunday. The tyres are behaving as expected, with a smaller performance difference between the two compounds than what we saw in Singapore, which is in line with our predictions.”
ZitatQualifying struggles related to Pirelli changes - Raikkonen
Kimi Raikkonen believes his lack of qualifying pace at recent races is related to the change in tyre constructions midway through the year.
After a scrappy middle and final sector in qualifying for this weekend's Korean Grand Prix, Raikkonen will line up 10th on the grid. Asked whether it was a missed opportunity, Raikkonen said he had been struggling to get the front end of his car working over a single lap since Pirelli changed the tyre construction at the Hungarian Grand Prix for safety reasons.
"Since we changed the tyres it's been more like it was last year and for me it was definitely better qualifying with the other tyres and a bit more sharp in the front end," he said. "We've got to find a way to get it back where we want to be because it's hit us quite hard in qualifying lately. But I'm pretty sure we can find something and it usually turns out to be more normal in race conditions."
But Raikkonen, whose Q2 time was 0.7s faster than his Q3 time on Saturday, admitted his lacklustre performance in Korea was down to mistakes he made on his hot lap.
"I made some mistakes, and with the lap I had already done we ended up P10," he said. "Yesterday it was okay. Over one lap it's been a bit difficult with the front end - I haven't had enough front end. We might know the reason why that happened, but yesterday it was more how I like it. But it's been difficult over one lap to get it how I want it when I push hard."
On the plus side, Raikkonen is confident he will be able to overtake in Korea on Sunday.
"For sure it should be much easier than many other places. Yesterday I was able to overtake, which is a good thing, but obviously it depends on different times in the race and where we are with the tyres. It should be okay."
according to the timing app Kimi was on used tyres in Q3 " title="confused" /> did they think it would be quicker or are they saving tyre for the race? they could have gone for tenth anyway with no lap.. " title="dunno" />
Print view
Fri Oct 04, 2013 10:56 am
" title="bliss" />
" title="holy" />
reply
" title="whew" /> 
" title="ha" /> he said it with a smirk on his face 
h" title="hih" /> 
" title="yes" />
" title="hmm" /> 
cream" title="icecream" /> 
" title="pray" />
" title="oi" /> P9 thank the penalty for Webber, Perez behind.... 
" title="
" title="there" />
" title="confused" /> did they think it would be quicker or are they saving tyre for the race? they could have gone for tenth anyway with no lap.. 
" title="dunno" />