2013 Korean GP Team Review: Lotus

Romain Grosjean(right) is all smiles and celebrates his third place at the Korean GP with winner Sebastian Vettel(centre) of Red Bull Racing, 2nd placed Kimi Raikkonen (left) of Lotus, and Red Bull Racing Performance Engineer Tim Malyon (2nd left) on the podium in Yeongam, South Korea. (Photo courtesy : Getty Images)

It took sometime coming but the Lotus-Renault F1 team was back rejoicing with both their drivers finishing atop the podium with second and third place, a repeat of the feat in Abu Dhabi and at Nurburgring earlier in the season. It was their star driver Kimi Raikkonen stealing the limelight, from the young Frenchman and teammate Romain Grosjean, as he moved up the order in a chaotic race after starting ninth on the grid. Grosjean on the other hand saw his luck return and managed to stay clear of the chaos finally making it to the podium, after a disappointing race in Singapore, as he started third on the grid(as Mark Webber down to 13^th with a penalty) after a brilliant qualifying lap.

Lotus had a better car(in terms of speed) than some of the other front runners and couldn’t have asked for a better result in Yeongam under Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull Racing-Renault’s continued domination and as they had failed to see a podium finish last year. A near perfect finish for the Enstone based team now sees them move closer to Mercedes F1 in the Constructor’s table the deficit being 44 points and Kimi Raikkonen move into third with 6 points ahead of Lewis Hamilton in the drivers tally.

Kimi Raikkonen

The Iceman had the scarcely populated Korean International Circuit burst into cheers every time he made a pass on a car. But a second place is not what Raikkonen would have ideally wanted despite having to start behind some distance from Vettel. It was a sixth second place finish for him and would have ideally wanted to get on top of the podium for a change. We all know he is not ready to get that something close to a smile unless he wins.

Raikkonen was in 5^th place as the first safety car came out but he stayed out having made a pit-stop a lap before. With a bunch of cars in the pits he moved into third behind his teammate. But the second safety car was out soon with Raikkonen making his move on Grosjean at Turn 1, muscling his Lotus and literally ambushing his largely inexperienced teammate to get into second place behind Vettel.

As soon as the safety car peeled off into the pits, Raikkonen was behind Vettel’s Red-Bull but the German pulled off clear with fresher tyres and gained a one second lead after 2 laps. As Vettel pulled ahead in the final laps, Raikkonen defended his second place from teammate Grosjean. Raikkonen finished a little over four seconds behind Vettel and 0.7 seconds ahead of his teammate. While there were no boos for Vettel, a largely packed crowd at the grandstand had cheering for the Iceman.

Romain Grosjean

The Frenchman finally redeemed himself with a podium, his third of the season finishing in the same place behind his teammate at Bahrain and Germany. He was closest to Vettel half through the race after starting from third on the grid. He swiftly moved past Lewis Hamilton moving into Turn 2 to take second place. Grosjean was able to manage his tyres and looked comfortable until the mid race safety car interventions made it difficult to keep his teammate behind him. Grosjean made a slight mistake into Turn 1 and Raikkonen had enough room to squeeze out Grosjean to take second place before reaching Turn 3 with yellow flags waving. The safety car changing Grosjean fortune’s again similar to what had transpired Germany.

While most people were surprised others expected a Lotus snub to Raikkonen as Eric Boullier was heard trying to coax Grosjean on the radio to catch teammate Raikkonen. Grosjean was told he was the faster of the two but Grosjean was clear in stating that he could not catch Raikkonen as the Finn had a comfortable lead.

In recent races Grosjean has shown he has come up the curve from being a rookie who was ready to crash at the drop of a hat, to someone who can take control of his driving and act maturely and ready to lead Lotus’s campaign for the 2014 season.