Raikkonen: I’m quite disappointed to be starting from 7th

Kimi Raikkonen has vented his displeasure at qualifying a lowly 7th for tomorrow’s Indian Grand Prix, after the Finn initially felt confident heading into the qualifying hour. To cap an overall frustrating qualifying session for Lotus, Romain Grosjean could only manage a distant 11th after loosing time during his second run in Q2.

Throughout the latter half of this season, Lotus have gradually lost ground to rivals such as Ferrari and McLaren. Despite this loss of form, Kimi Raikkonen has continued to finish competitively at each event, and remains the only driver to have completed every single racing lap of the season so far. However, frustration has become evident throughout recent races, with the usually cool ‘Iceman’ becoming increasingly frustrated with still no victory so far this season.

"We changed the car after this morning’s session and we were quite confident heading in to qualifying.” Explained a downcast Kimi Raikkonen, “Unfortunately, we didn’t seem to have any grip this afternoon so it was much more difficult than we thought. I’m quite disappointed to be starting from seventh as I thought we had a much better car than that."

Romain Grosjean feels equally frustrated after qualifying a lowly 11th for tomorrow’s race, in a session which saw the Frenchman make several minor mistakes on his way to an uncompetitive qualifying result. Although the former GP2 Champion now has the ability to choose which tyres he will start the race on tomorrow, it’s unquestionable that the Enstone-based outfit were after a much more competitive performance heading into this weekend.

Both Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean will be aiming for a points finish in tomorrow’s race, as Raikkonen in particular strives to retain his 3rd place in the Drivers’ Championship ahead of the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton. For many months, the F1 fraternity have been waiting for the Finn to take his first victory since his return to the sport, however the wait is still on to see the 2007 World Champion return to the top step of the podium.

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