According to Mika Salo, Kimi has huge back problems...he has so much pain that the driving was almost impossible during the morning. " title="there" /> " title="nails" /> " title="holy" /> http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/110024
Zitatvia Jordan Irvine @IrvineF1 There we go - seat wasn't secured fully when Raikkonen hit a curb yesterday; this is why he has hurt his spine. Thanks @therealdcf1
In FP3 I just knew something was wrong. I dont even know if Kimi should actually race. When he was driving around in qualifying I was worried everytime he got near a wall. Just one small late reaction and he is going to hit a wall.
Zitatvia Jordan Irvine @IrvineF1 There we go - seat wasn't secured fully when Raikkonen hit a curb yesterday; this is why he has hurt his spine. Thanks @therealdcf1
" title="hmm" /> Is this the 1st of many tricks they are going to pull on him 'cos bosses not happy? " title="annoyed" />
" title="no" /> I dont think so. No one would do this for purpose. " title="oi" />
ZitatRaikkonen to race on despite back pains
Kimi Raikkonen says he intend to compete in tomorrow’s race despite his qualifying effort being hampered by back pains. Raikkonen had an injection of painkillers before qualifying for the Singapore Grand Prix, which he will start in 13th place. Asked if he felt his qualifying result was due to the pain from his back, Raikkonen said: “I think it’s a combination really.” “This morning I couldn’t really drive so I didn’t do what we were supposed to do. That’s how it goes, we’ll see what we can do tomorrow.” However he still intends to start the race tomorrow: “We’ll try and see what happens,” he said. “It’s not the first time unfortunately and I don’t think it’s the last time we’ll have the pains.”
i was out and could not follow both fp3 or quali. so i just read twitter on the phone. i'm boiling mad at this point. of course i dont believe lotus ever thought of physically harming their driver. but if it is all true they did a huge and dangerous mistake! and when we do that we just shut the F**K up and support the person harmed.
i was never obsessed against lotus or gro. or even Boullier! but at this point i think Kimi did not do a huge mistake by talking about the situation. ok, he could have omitted it, but hes not political at all. so he said the truth! to read Boulliers and Lopez's comments makes me mad! They proved that as managers they did not have the ability to make full use of the marketing treasure they had in their hands! its not Kimi's fault that they were not capable enough, thus making so many good people who liked the team to have to pack up and go!
Romain Grosjean qualified in third position at the Marina Bay Street Circuit as Kimi Räikkönen pushed through the pain barrier to take thirteenth on tomorrow’s Singapore Grand Prix grid.
Romain equalled his season-best qualifying position from the Hungarian Grand Prix of P3 with a lap time of 1min 43.058secs, leaving only the Red Bull of championship leader Sebastian Vettel and the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg ahead of him.
Kimi suffered from back aggravations in today’s practice session and participated in qualifying after attention from physiotherapists.
Kimi Räikkönen, E21-05. Q: P13, 1:44.658. FP3: P12, 1:46.147 “Unfortunately today didn’t go to plan as the issue with my back meant I couldn’t really drive properly this morning, so we didn’t get everything done like we wanted in the practice session. It’s still quite painful and there wasn’t much more I could do in qualifying when you take that combination of things into account. It’s not the first time I’ve driven with a problem and it probably won’t be the last time either, but I’ll be on the grid tomorrow and we’ll try to get the maximum from where we are at the start.”
Romain Grosjean, E21-04. Q: P3, 1:43.058. FP3: P2, 1:44.364 “After all the issues we had yesterday the team did a fantastic job to get the car running well and also to find a good setup despite having done so few laps. The car felt good all day; enough that we were confident in taking a risk during Q1 by not running the option tyres. It was a great strategy call that really paid off, and I think with a little more luck on the out lap we could maybe even have been one place higher. Sebastian [Vettel] looks to have a pretty clear advantage, but we’ve got lots of fresh tyres for tomorrow so a podium is definitely the target.”
Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: “Mixed feelings today; unfortunate for Kimi, fantastic for Romain”
How was qualifying for the team? We have mixed feelings today. It’s unfortunate that Kimi had a problem with his back which caused him quite a bit of pain and affected his performance, whilst Romain enjoyed a pretty much perfect day after all the car troubles he had yesterday. FP3 went well for him, then qualifying went completely to plan. We’re very happy with third on the grid and looking forward to a strong race tomorrow.
What’s changed with the car to make it qualify better here? We knew the last two races would be difficult for our car and so they proved to be, but we were expecting better performance once we got to the higher downforce tracks such as Singapore and this has also transpired.
What are the strategic permutations tomorrow? Our long run pace was very good yesterday with Kimi second on pace only to the Red Bulls. Sebastian [Vettel] will be hard to beat as he’s in very good form, but there’s no reason why a podium for Romain is not possible and we have seen some storming drives through the field from Kimi in the past too. We could be in for an exciting and rewarding race.
Zitat von Olgai was out and could not follow both fp3 or quali. so i just read twitter on the phone. i'm boiling mad at this point. of course i dont believe lotus ever thought of physically harming their driver. but if it is all true they did a huge and dangerous mistake! and when we do that we just shut the F**K up and support the person harmed.
i was never obsessed against lotus or gro. or even Boullier! but at this point i think Kimi did not do a huge mistake by talking about the situation. ok, he could have omitted it, but hes not political at all. so he said the truth! to read Boulliers and Lopez's comments makes me mad! They proved that as managers they did not have the ability to make full use of the marketing treasure they had in their hands! its not Kimi's fault that they were not capable enough, thus making so many good people who liked the team to have to pack up and go!
The thing is I ve read that Lotus was purposely holding Kimi's money back. They wanted a hold on him, they thought he would be less likely to leave Lotus if they still owed him money. So they might have been playing Kimi from the start. I think Kimi give them a deadline, and as I said they thought if they owed Kimi money that he would stay on to lessen the financial loss, but instead it had the opposite reaction.
that makes things even worse if true. but these things happen...we must expect them. still i got so mad at them these days.
during summer, this person told me that lotus has not made many payments to suppliers since May. thats when i started to believe the ferrari story ( he also said there are too many things we fans dont know about 2009 ). i still cant believe how such a promising team, with an excellent big name driver who performed so consistently, did not manage to get sponsors...its so sad!
but i hate and dont want to see Boullier turning to a new LdM... " title="sad" />
ZitatSingapore GP: Kimi Raikkonen expected to race despite back pain
Kimi Raikkonen will race in the Singapore GP despite suffering a back problem that left him 13th on the grid.
The Finn needed a pain-killing injection before qualifying after complaining of "very bad" discomfort in final practice.
"It was good we drove in qualifying in the end but not the most nice. We will race and see what happens," he said.
The pain was bad enough for Lotus to prepare reserve driver David Valsecchi before Raikkonen was cleared to drive.
Raikkonen has a long-standing back problem which occasionally flares up. Usually, driving the car frees it up but in Singapore it grew worse.
Raikkonen initially complained of some discomfort in Friday practice but on Saturday he was in significant pain, to the extent that he could not breathe while braking for Singapore's 23 corners.
After the injection he was in no pain during qualifying, but he had lost time preparing his car in final practice and did not have the confidence to push as hard as he would have liked in qualifying.
Lotus expect Raikkonen to be able to race after further injections.