Kimi Raikkonen eyes podium finish at the Malaysian Grand Prix – Formula 1 news
Kimi Raikkonen has said that he is targeting a podium finish in the Malaysian Grand Prix.
Raikkonen had a mixed bag in Australia as the Finn went through a poor qualifiers day but an impressive race day. The 2007 world champion drove impressively on Sunday and move up the ranks and finish 7th he was placed at 17th at the start of the race.
The performance showed that the new Lotus car has what it takes to challenge for the top spots. Team principal Eric Boullier has taken a lot of satisfaction from the performance in Australia and is hoping better results are on the cards.
Raikkonen also said that the new car is more than capable of fighting at the front in Sepang.
“The car feels very good,” said Raikkonen. “In the race I was stuck in traffic a lot so it didn't show so much, and who knows what might have happened if we had a better grid slot. There is a lot of speed in the car. As long as qualifying goes well we could
be fighting for podiums.”
“There's much more to come. We're learning about the car all the time and the last race didn't really give us a chance to use its full potential. Hopefully Malaysia will be a bit more straightforward,” he said.
Raikkonen said that the team will be working hard to improve the performance in Malaysia. It is still unsure how the car will behave at Sepang but it has been pretty good everywhere so hope is that it is the same in Malaysia as well.
Romain Grosjean also said that he is hoping for a much-improved performance in Malaysia as the track is not very hard and the car is working very nicely.
It will be interesting to see how Lotus fares at the Malaysian Grand Prix. The team will be in fierce competition with Mercedes and Ferrari for the most part and if they do even better, then its McLaren and Red Bull to challenge.
The second Grand Prix of the season begins on March 25, 2012 giving less than a week for the teams to regroup.
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