• Singapore Grand Prix - FP2

'Not an easy day' for Raikkonen

ESPN Staff
September 21, 2012 « Mistake cost 0.5s - Hamilton | 'Mercedes offer him much greater freedom on the commercial side' »
Kimi Raikkonen believes the Lotus E20 is lacking downforce at Singapore © Sutton Images
Enlarge
Related Links

Kimi Raikkonen thinks Lotus is lacking downforce after enduring what he described as "not an easy day" of practice for the Singapore Grand Prix.

Having expected to be competitive on the street circuit, Raikkonen found himself two seconds slower than Sebastian Vettel in FP2 as he struggled for grip. When asked what the problem was, Raikkonen said he believed it was a lack of downforce but said a new rear wing aimed at increasing the effectiveness of the DRS was not to blame.

"It was not an easy day," Raikkonen said. "We don't have enough grip for some reason - I guess we're lacking downforce and it seems to be a bit difficult, at least today. We tried but we didn't run [the rear wing], it's nothing to do with that I think, maybe we are not improving as fast as the others."

Raikkonen also said he was experiencing the same problems on both the soft and supersoft compound tyres.

"Yeah, I mean the same issues are there. When you put on new tyres it always feels a bit better for the beginning. I think we can improve for tomorrow, but we're not going to find two seconds from somewhere.

"Usually we improve for Saturday time-wise but like I said we're not suddenly going to catch up two seconds from today to the front. I'm sure they will improve also so it just shows that we're not as fast as we should be, but hopefully we can find something and be a bit more happy tomorrow."

Close