• Italian Grand Prix - FP2

Red Bull uncatchable - Grosjean

ESPN Staff
September 6, 2013 « McLaren still just off front running pace - Button | No decision on new chassis - Raikkonen »
Romain Grosjean: "They are quick and it's the same story as Spa" © Sutton Images
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Romain Grosjean believes Red Bull will be "uncatchable" this weekend after Sebastian Vettel dominated the second practice session at the Italian Grand Prix.

Lotus was the nearest competitor to Red Bull with both Grosjean and Kimi Raikkonen setting identical times 0.663s off Vettel. However, after Vettel dominated the Belgian Grand Prix two weeks ago, Grosjean is predicting a repeat.

"They are quick and it's the same story as Spa," he said. "They can run a very low rear wing level and the diffuser seems to be very good. They generate downforce in a different way and it seems to work well with their car. I think they are uncatchable."

Lotus is running two different wheelbases at Monza, with Raikkonen using a new, longer version and Grosjean using the regular, shorter one. He said there were advantages to the longer one, but mainly in giving the driver confidence under braking.

"I think there are some good surprises from the long wheelbase but it's more related to the feeling and hard to say the feeling [when you are not driving it]," he said. "It was impossible to change it between FP1 and FP2 so Kimi did the whole day with it. He seems pretty upbeat so it may be positive for the future."

This weekend is Grosjean's first Italian Grand Prix appearance since 2009 (barring GP2 drives) after he was banned from last year's race. He admitted last year's absence meant he was on the back foot at the start of the practice session.

"I try to keep working and doing my improvement that I've been doing at the last few races. We started maybe a bit far back because I didn't race here last year and was hard to get a baseline. We worked hard in FP2 and we came back with a few things we should have known from the past."

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