Kimi Raikkonen believes Lotus struggling with tyres in Canada – Formula 1 news
Kimi Raikkonen has claimed that Lotus have the pace to match the front runners, but the team is unable to get the tyres up to temperature on low fuel runs, which is why he has failed to make a strong impression in the qualifiers.
The Finn had a disappointing weekend in Monaco and will be looking to deliver a strong result in the Canadian GP. However, his qualifying form is not good enough to match the likes of Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes, which is disappointing for him.
Therefore, the 2007 world champion said after the Friday practice sessions, “The car is not too bad but we have some issue with getting the tyres working. If we can get the tyres to switch on it makes a much bigger difference than any small set-up thing.
It's the same story as in Monaco. We were pretty OK but we were not fast enough in qualifying because of the tyres not working.”
Raikkonen finished 11th in the rain-hit FP1 while finished fifth in the dry FP2. About his performance, he said, “Obviously the lap time was not the fastest but it's very close here between everybody so if you go faster you can gain a lot of places.”
The Iceman started off the 2013 Formula 1 season on a high, winning the opening round in Australia. He had the best race pace of all and managed the tyres better than any of the other drivers. Therefore, it seemed that he would be the one to beat this year,
but things changed pretty quickly, as he failed to repeat such results with consistency.
Despite that, Raikkonen has managed to stay in the championship hunt and a couple of more victories will put him in a great position once again. Normally, he has been good on tracks where others struggle with tyre wear.
Therefore, he will be hoping for a strong show in Montreal, as the nature of the circuit puts extra burden on the tyres. As a result, Lotus might manage to stop one time less compared to rivals teams, which will give Raikkonen an outside chance to score
the second win of the season.
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