Saturday: “Not great” qualifications for Räikkönen and Grosjean
Kimi Räikkönen achieved the ninth fastest time and Romain Grosjean the eleventh during the Bahrain Grand Prix qualifying. The French driver missed advancing to Q3 by 0.06 seconds. The Finn will start from eighth place due to the penalty received by Lewis Hamilton.
Kimi Räikkönen – 4th and 9th [8th on the grid]:
« This qualification was not the easiest, after a weekend that wasn’t really easy either, for the moment. Yesterday, it was difficult at times to find the car’s balance and that repeated itself today. This morning, things were going well and the free practice session wasn’t too bad. But this afternoon, we didn’t put everything together. My lap wasn’t great, but the race is long, so we’ll just have to see what we can do. »
Romain Grosjean – 6th and 11th:
« Obviously, it’s disappointing to miss Q3, but it happens. There was no problem with the car. We were just a bit too bold by making only one attempt in Q2 and unfortunately, it didn’t pay off. On the positive side, we were much more competitive this weekend compared to the previous three, and our pace with the hard tires in Q1 was excellent. We had already qualified in similar positions last year and achieved a double podium. So it’s all still to play for. »
[From the official press release issued by Lotus F1 Team]
