ZitatAustralian GP: Raikkonen says victory one of the easiest yet By Matt Beer Sunday, March 17th 2013, 08:10 GMT
Kimi Raikkonen described his win in the 2013 Formula 1 season-opening Australian Grand Prix as one of the easiest of his career.
Raikkonen came through from seventh on the grid to win in Melbourne, joining Sebastian Vettel, Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso in a lead train after a good start, and then vaulting his rivals by two-stopping while they had to pit three times.
"Our plan was to do two stops and though it's always difficult in the first races to know when to stop and not go too early, we got it exactly right," he said.
"We followed the plan and it worked out perfectly for us. I could save the tyres and go fast if I needed.
"It was one of the easiest races I have done to win. Hopefully we can have many more of these races."
Alonso was closing in on Raikkonen in the final stages, before the Finn raised his pace, set a new fastest lap and pulled away to win by 11 seconds.
"Fernando was catching me at some points when I was taking it a bit more easy and I had some traffic, so I just wanted to make sure that if the rain came or anything I had a bit more of a gap," said Raikkonen.
"It was a pretty nice race, not so difficult."
Despite his perfect start to the season, Raikkonen underlined that Lotus could not be confident it was a title contender yet.
"It feels good but it's only one race so it doesn't really change our aim or our work," he said.
"We're happy with the win and there's a lot still to do to try to win the championship."
Brilliant " title="run" /> It looks whenever he gets a sniff of victory he just goes "crazy"
Bad race for Romain but I'm sure he'll be back soon, especially in qualifying.
The only thing I don't like, is that IMO the car to have now (it could look totally different in hot Malaysia), is Ferrari. They were easily faster than Lotus in the rain, their race pace is also very good... I just think they have a car that is fast in all conditions. I hope it doesn't rain in Malaysia.
what a start of the season! well done Kimi and Lotus " title="ii" /> " title="run" /> " title="bliss" />
ZitatWalk All Over You
Kimi Räikkönen opened up Lotus F1 Team’s 2013 championship points account with a maximum deposit by taking victory in the first race of the season; the Australian Grand Prix. Kimi made two pit stops – whilst most of his opposition made three – to secure his 20th Grand Prix win, equalling the tally of compatriot Mika Häkkinen. Romain Grosjean came home in tenth position after a difficult race. Kimi leads the Drivers’ Championship with 25 points to Fernando Alonso’s 18, whilst the team occupies second position in the Constructors’ Championship with 26 points to Ferrari’s 30.
· Kimi and Romain both started on used supersoft compound tyres. · Kimi pitted for new medium tyres on laps 9 and 34, Romain on laps 5, 19 and 37.
Kimi Räikkönen, P1, E21-03 “I’m happy for the team and for myself also. We’ve had a quick car all weekend and there were no issues with it either, so we could just focus on trying different things and getting the setup how we wanted. I had a good feeling that we would be ok with the tyres after practice and the team got the strategy perfect. I made a few places at the start and then had a good battle with Lewis [Hamilton] but after that it was quite simple; probably one of my easiest wins. You can’t start the season much better than winning the first race and of course we hope we can be fighting at the front of the Championship, but there’s a long way to go still and we need to keep pushing hard all the way.”
Romain Grosjean, P10, E21-01 “Something felt wrong with my car, so I have to sit down with the team and analyse where the issue came from. It felt so good all weekend until the race itself, but in the end the race was long and quite difficult for me. We know that Albert Park can be a tricky circuit and the weather has certainly not helped today. It’s been a great weekend for the team with Kimi’s win so it’s clear there’s pace in the car. Let’s hope I can unlock that pace too next weekend in Sepang.”
Eric Boullier, Team Principal "I’m very happy. After Kimi’s great start we were hoping that we could achieve a podium finish, then as the race unfolded and we saw the other teams pitting – showing that they were on three-stop strategies – our position became stronger and stronger. It’s a fantastic feeling to open the season in this way. Kimi drove impeccably all weekend and gave the team his all. Romain had a difficult race and we have to analyse what went wrong for him. This win is a further testament to all the hard work which goes on at Enstone and we owe tremendous thanks to each and every employee. We head to Malaysia in the best position we could be. ”
James Allison, Technical Director “It was a splendid thing we saw today. It’s a day like this which make everything about this job worthwhile and that will be true for everyone involved with the team. It’s great. We were a little deflated after qualifying, as we knew the car had better pace than our grid positions suggested. Nevertheless we were confident from the long run pace we’d seen on Friday that we could make a two-stop strategy work. It was lovely to see the lap times ticking off metronomically without any real fear that the tyres weren’t going to go the distance. Hopefully we can repeat Kimi’s fantastic performance again next weekend with both cars.”
Ricardo Penteado, Renault Sport F1 Team Support Leader “As we’ve seen this weekend the field is incredibly close and each detail counts even more, so we’ve worked hard with the team to exploit every last area of performance from the engine over the winter period. In the race we were aggressive with the fuel strategy to maintain a healthy gap over Fernando and Kimi did a great job with managing the tyres. Romain also came in strongly at the end to get a double points’ finish. A fantastic way to start the season!.”
ZitatKIMI RÄIKKÖNEN DELIGHTED WITH TEAM PERFORMANCE IN AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX VICTORY Kimi’s 2013 World Championship challenge got off to the perfect start in Melbourne this afternoon; a sublime performance at the Albert Park circuit granting the Finn his twentieth Grand Prix victory and second for the team.
WHAT A WAY TO START THE SEASON! HOW ARE YOU FEELING? I’m happy for the team and for myself also. Qualifying wasn’t the easiest for us and maybe we should have been a bit further up the grid, but I made a few places at the start and then had a good battle with Lewis [Hamilton] before I eventually managed to get past. After that it was quite simple; probably one of my easiest wins.
YOUR PACE LOOKED STRONG THROUGHOUT THE RACE; HOW DID IT FEEL FROM INSIDE THE COCKPIT? We were happy with the car in Barcelona, but knew there was more to come from it and we found that through this weekend. I didn’t do many laps during the winter after the issues we had, so Friday was really my first proper long run and it felt good straight away. We’ve had a quick car all weekend and there were no issues with it either, so we could just focus on trying different things and getting the setup how we wanted. I’m really pleased with how the car performed here; I felt like I could push when I wanted to and it was never too difficult to find the speed.
YOU MADE THE TYRES LAST BETTER THAN ANYONE ELSE OUT THERE; HOW DIFFICULT WAS IT TO KEEP THEM GOING? I had a good feeling that we would be ok with the tyres after practice; although it wasn’t 100% straight away we made some changes which worked well so that’s a big positive as you never know what they might be like in the race or how the other teams will cope with them. The team got the strategy perfect; apart from maybe Force India I don’t think the others looked like they could do the same thing.
ONE RACE, ONE WIN; DOES THIS BODE WELL FOR THE YEAR AHEAD? You can’t start the season much better than winning the first race and of course we hope we can be fighting at the front of the Championship, but there’s a long way to go still and we need to keep pushing hard all the way through. I think it will be two or three race before we really see where all the teams are. Hopefully we can qualify a bit better at the next race and have a similar performance.
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Sun Mar 17, 2013 9:35 am
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" title="run" /> It looks whenever he gets a sniff of victory he just goes "crazy" 
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