Kimi Raikkonen believes Lotus in better shape for Germany – Formula 1 News
Kimi Raikkonen has claimed that Lotus are in a better shape compared to what they were in the previous round of the 2013 Formula 1 season in Great Britain.
The Finn was not happy with the performance of his car during the previous race, but he still managed to finish fifth overall. However, he was right to be disappointed,
as he had an opportunity of finishing on the podium, which was lost because of bad team strategy.
Towards the ending moments of the Silverstone GP, Raikkonen was running second under the safety car. His rivals had opted to pit during that period in order to
get fresher tyres, but he was told to stay on track by his race engineer. This strategy did not pay off for him and he lost some places in the end.
Although Lotus have made no changes to their car coming to the German GP, the 2007 world champion believes that the track characteristics will suit his car. He
claimed, “It (Nurburgring) is a more high downforce circuit and probably suits us better than the low downforce, and also it is a long time since we used the soft tyres on a normal race circuit, which was at Shanghai. For some reason they seem to be a bit
better for us.”
After the end of the Friday practice sessions, Raikkonen looked pleased with his performance. However, he insisted that improvements were needed in order to challenge
the front runners, especially during the qualifying. He added that it would not be easy for him to start from the front row of the grid, but anything in the top-six would be fine.
According to the veteran driver, “We have to work on the cars a bit to get it a bit better - the long runs felt bad but the car wasn't with the right set-up. I
think you can expect more or less similar to what we have done in previous races.”
The one-time world champion is currently third in the Drivers’ Championship and will need a solid result in Germany to cause problems to his rivals. He has not
enjoyed good luck at the Nurburgring in the past, but will be hoping for a change of fortune this time around.
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