ZitatRäikkönen surprised by Lotus pace 8 September 2013
Lotus driver Kimi Räikkönen admits that he was surprised by the pace of his car during the Italian Grand Prix, having struggled with balance earlier in the weekend.
But he went on to deliver a string of fastest lap times throughout his comeback, bringing him within half a second of the final point-scoring position at the finish.
"It’s not just time in the pits, you have to work your way through the field afterwards," explained Räikkönen, referring to his early collision. "We did a pretty good job of that and the car felt good, surprisingly good given where we were on Saturday.
"Unfortunately, there’s not much you can do after the start to the race we had."
Romain Grosjean kept Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton at bay in the closing stages to finish eighth, adding: "I think we did the best we could here at Monza and I hope that for Singapore we can get back to the level of performance that we had in Budapest."
I honestly can't believe Perez got away with that move at the start without at least a reprimand. He didn't need to move over. Secondly, kimi was alongside and Perez chops Kimi by not leaving one car length. This proves at least one if not two things: Perez suffers from lack of spatial awareness and/or believes he is entitled to every inch of asphalt. Given his history of risky makeovers.. I think he is quite lucky to come away from this weekend without a penalty.
Edit: this is actually worse than Alonso squeezing Raikkonen at Suzuka 2012! If Perez were in contention for the WDC: it is rubbish driving like this that would greatly affect his chances