• Jerez Test, Day Three

Raikkonen happy with E21 despite clutch issue

Kimi Raikkonen completed just 40 laps on Thursday © Sutton Images

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• Drivers:
• Kimi Räikkönen

• Teams:
• Lotus F1

Kimi Raikkonen believes Lotus has a good starting point with the E21 but refused to get too excited about it after just 40 laps on his first day.

Raikkonen took over from Romain Grosjean in the Lotus cockpit on Thursday, but completed limited mileage due to a clutch issue. He said he spent most of his day getting used to the new car and refining his seating position, but that the E21 felt like a step up on last year's Lotus at the same stage.

"It's okay but we still don't have all the parts that we need to run in the races and that we had last year," he said. "It only can get better but it's not too bad. It's the first day and I'm trying to get back to the driving and I will just drive around and get used to it. For sure it feels better than this time last year, I think we have a good car but how good it is in the end we will only see during the races and during the season. Of course we would rather do a few more laps but we had some small issues with electronic things and stuff like that."

One of the issues Raikkonen was not 100% happy with last year was the feel of the car's steering but he said there was still work to do on the E21 in that regard.

"It's the same like we finished the last year and it's okay, but we're still working on all those things and trying to improve them," he said. "We just need to do some work on the seat, as is normal, because we make the seat at the factory and then we hope it feels okay once we drive and you can only feel after that. It's all okay now for tomorrow."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.