- Indian Grand Prix
Lotus disappointed with Kimi after Grosjean battle
Lotus team principal Eric Boullier will give Kimi Raikkonen a talking to in Abu Dhabi after he nearly came to blows with team-mate Romain Grosjean while fighting for position towards the end of the Indian Grand Prix.
Grosjean attempted to pass Raikkonen on lap 56 at Turn 4 but was run off the road by his team-mate despite Raikkonen struggling on older tyres. Although contact was not made, the scrap delayed both drivers, pushing Grosjean within striking distance of Felipe Massa behind and taking more energy out of Raikkonen's heavily degrading tyres.
Lotus appeared to warn Raikkonen over the pit-to-car radio and Boullier said he would sit his drivers down in Abu Dhabi to discuss the issue.
"They are free to race each other," Boullier said. "But it is true that we were maybe expecting a little bit of an easier manoeuvre, let's say. You're never happy when you see both cars fighting and one car going off, so you just make sure they fight in the team's interest.
"I'm going to speak to both of them again in Abu Dhabi. It's true that we are working for these guys to deliver, but there is a team behind, so you also need to think about that. If his [Raikkonen's] tyres hadn't dropped off we would say let them race, which is normal.
"Kimi is a competitor so obviously he is racing everybody and I can understand that. He is racing everybody and he is racing against his team-mate. It's true that when you are racing in the same conditions, you are racing, and I'm fine with that. But when the tyres are dropping off and you are two seconds off the pace, if it's your team-mate you don't have to make a drama with this and you have to bring the cars as high in the ranking for yourself and for the team. But don't stop the other guy bringing points home for the team."
Raikkonen, who went on to finish seventh after a late pit stop, only completed seven laps on his soft tyres at the start of the race compared to Grosjean's 13 laps. He said after the race that overheating brakes had caused him issues.
"We ran maybe the first twenty laps with no brakes as they had overheated massively, so every time I got close to somebody I lost braking," Raikkonen explained. "At the end of the race I ran out of tyre performance too so it's been a pretty disappointing day. I knew the tyres would drop off quite quickly, but there wasn't much to lose between trying to get to the end and making an extra pit stop in terms of time lost. In the end it didn't work."
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