Kimi Raikkonen struggles with lack of downforce in the qualifying of 2012 German GP – Formula 1 news
Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen has said that he almost crashed on every lap during the qualifying of 2012 German Grand Prix held at Hockenheimring as he struggled with the issue of lack of downforce.
Raikkonen showed an impressive performance during the early stages of the qualifying. However, his pace dropped off radically in rainy conditions during the final session and he could only secure 10th grid position for the forthcoming race.
The Finnish driver said that although he had a good start but he faced problem of limited downforce on wet track towards the end of the qualifying which hindered his performance.
Nevertheless, he expressed that they have got the car which is capable enough of winning. He also said that he is focussing to attain better result in the approaching race and is expecting dry weather conditions on the race day.
“Our car is quick but for some reason we just don't have any grip whatsoever when it gets wet,” said the Finnish driver. “It's been a bit similar in other races also but it's definitely worse here. I don't know why but we don't seem to get any downforce
and we're just aquaplaning in a straight line and I almost crashed every lap. There's nothing I could have done in the wet to go faster. But our car seems to pretty good and we were happy with it the whole weekend when it was dry.”
In addition, it will be important to mention that he is hoping to achieve good points in the race ahead by taking the advantage of DRS as he believes that overtaking will be very easy on the track of the next race.
At present, he is standing at 5th place in the drivers’ championship with 83 points. Furthermore, he is ahead of Nico Rosberg of Mercedes and is behind Lewis Hamilton of McLaren.
Meanwhile, the Enstone based team is currently at 3rd position in the constructors’ rankings with 144 points. Additionally, they are ahead of McLaren and are behind Ferrari.
Over and above, it will be very exciting to see how they come up in the upcoming race.
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