Lotus duo upbeat after improved qualifying performance
Saturday 6 July 2013 21:15, UK
Kimi Raikkonen reckons he could have qualified even higher than fourth for the German Grand Prix after a "much better" performance on Saturday.
That much has been suspected all weekend, with Raikkonen and team-mate Romain Grosjean there or thereabouts all weekend and also showing good long-run pace on Friday afternoon. Both drivers have said that Lotus's E21 is well-suited to the 5.148km Nurburgring track and while Raikkonen was ambivalent about the new rear tyre construction Pirelli are running this weekend for safety reasons - "it was more or less the same" - Grosjean said they feel a bit better to him. The Frenchman, who qualified one place behind Raikkonen, said: "The first time I tested them in Canada, I quite liked them to be honest. I think they're more of a race tyre than the previous one. It's just that the front is a bit tweaky and hard to get the feeling from it." Like his team-mate, Grosjean is optimistic he can make progress in the race. "I'm going to do my best," he added. "Sometimes we have a very good surprise: the car is amazing and the tyres are reacting well and it's going to be sort of easy to have a good result. "Sometimes you go into the race and nothing goes right. It's a question mark but from what we have seen so far, there's a good chance it'll work well." Remember you can watch the German GP live from the Nurburgring with a Sky Sports Day Pass from NOW TV. For more information, visit http://bit.ly/19YBfbx
