Tooth and Nail
A hard fought race for Lotus F1 Team at Monza this afternoon saw Kimi take a battling P5 to move up to P3 in the Drivers Championship, while stand-in driver Jrme DAmbrosio drove a controlled race in his first Grand Prix appearance for almost a year
Kimi Rikknen, E20-05 Grid: P7 Race: P5 Best Lap: 1:29.109 [Lap 52]
Jrme DAmbrosio, E20-04 Grid: P15 Race: P13 Best Lap: 1:28.677 [Lap 52]
Key Moments: Lap 01: Clean starts for KR & JDA; the Finn gains a place, the Belgian maintains position Lap 02: KR passed by ALO into the Rettifilo chicane; back to P7 Lap 06: JDA gains a place courtesy of a suspension failure for VER Lap 11: JDA reports KERS issues; passed by RIC for P15 Lap 15: JDA relegated another position by HUL Lap 16: KR moves up to P6 as MSC pits; instantly 0.5s per lap quicker Lap 17: KR loses that position almost instantly to PER; pits for hard tyres straight afterwards and emerges behind JDA Lap 27: JDA runs wide on the exit of Lesmo 2; tyres starting to fade Lap 31: JDA heads back to base for hard rubber Lap 34: KR & JDA both promoted one place after BUT retires Lap 37: KR loses out to PER into the Rettifilo chicane Lap 38: KR down another position; this time to HUL but regains a place as MSC pits Lap 42: KR sets his fastest lap of the race Lap 48: JDA gains a spot at VET retires Lap 51: JDA up two more as HUL and WEB pull out Lap 53: Chequered flag; KR P5, JDA P13Summary:
A clean getaway for both drivers saw Kimi move up one place to P7 while Jrme maintained his P15 starting slot; almost taking two cars at the first bend with a daring move before deciding that discretion was the better part of valour. Medium tyres were the weapon of choice for the pair during the first stint, with a switch to the hard option later in the race.
A race of punch and counter punch for the Finn saw some intense battles with Fernando [Alonso], Michael [Schumacher] and Sergio [Perez] as the 2007 World Champion fought hard for every position throughout the race; another strong performance from the Iceman moves him up to P3 in the Drivers Championship.
For Jrme, it was a race of frustration; losing his KERS early on after a decent start, the Belgian drove admirably on his debut for the team to finish two positions higher than his starting point. Despite a minor off-track excursion at Lesmo 2, the teams third driver managed his tyres well to complete a long first stint and bring the E20 safely home in his first race for almost a year.
Kimi Raikkonen - 5th
"Its good to go into third position in the Drivers Championship but we lost some points to Fernando which is not ideal. It was a difficult weekend as we were too slow in a straight line, making it very difficult to hold off anyone and even with the DRS it was difficult to overtake the cars in front. We did the one stop strategy and the tyres were fine. We came into the race looking for sixth or seventh so fifth is the maximum we could have done here this weekend.
Jerome DAmbrosio - 13th
It was a pretty long and difficult race for me today. After losing my KERS on lap 6 it was always going to be tough as thats worth about half a second per lap around here. I got a good start and was up fighting with Daniel (Ricciardo) and Nico (Rosberg), but once I lost that extra boost it was impossible to keep up and I dropped back. My last stint on the medium tyres in clean air was pretty good and I didnt make many mistakes, so maybe with a bit more luck we could have had a slightly better result. My main aim was to finish the race and Ive achieved that so its not so bad overall. It was great to be back in the car and especially with such a fantastic team; Ive learnt a lot this weekend.
Alan Permane, Lotus trackside operations director We werent looking forward to coming to Monza as it doesnt play to the strengths of our car so were very happy to come away with fifth place from Kimi. He drove exceptionally well at a circuit where we knew we werent going to be super competitive. Its fantastic that he has moved up into third place in the Drivers Championship, and is now just one point off second. Jrme had one arm tied behind his back with a KERS failure very early in the race and KERS is worth a significant amount of time here. He did a very credible job despite this, and his pace on the medium compound tyre in the second part of the race was pretty good. We now move to a circuit which we feel should really suit our car so were looking forward to the flyaways.
Eric Boullier, Lotus team principal"From this weekend I dont think we could have expected better. The key to a good championship position at the end of the season is always scoring points, even when it is a difficult weekend. Kimi delivered exactly as we wanted from him today and moving to third in the standings is a just reward. We are still in contact with those ahead of us in both Championships with seven races to go. Jerome did an amazing job after being thrown in at the deep end. Without his KERS issue Im pretty sure he could have achieved a points finish. We are optimistic that from Singapore onwards we will be much more competitive due to the circuit layout and updates we have coming, meaning we will be able to score more points in every race.
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