Lotus F1's Räikkönen 4th fastest on day three at Jezez testing

Kimi Räikkönen had his first taste of the E21 on track during the third day of testing in Jerez, Spain, ending the day with the 4th fastest time after a programme of aerodynamic assessment.

Kimi Raikkonen, Lotus F1 Team

Photo by: XPB Images

A crisp morning gave way to glorious blue skies as the team ran through a variety of exhaust evaluations. Running for Kimi ended early due to a clutch issue.

What’s Next?

Kimi Räikkönen will take the wheel of the E21 for final day of the Jerez test tomorrow.

Kimi Räikkönen: “It was good to get behind the wheel of a Formula 1 car again. The E21 feels quite good so far, even if the balance isn’t quite to my liking yet. That didn’t stop us going through the programme we wanted to do which had a lot of aero runs in it. We know the car can go faster, we were just running through what we needed to achieve. It’s a shame that we had a clutch issue at the end of the day, but that’s why we come testing so we can find these problems and fix them.”

Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: “Although we haven’t covered as many laps as we have on the previous two days we have still have been very productive. We spent much of the morning testing various exhaust exit specifications for our Coanda system. The car isn’t yet fully to Kimi’s liking, but we improved this through the day. We still have work to do with the balance, which is something we’ll work on tomorrow. Running ended early for us with a clutch failure which we’re investigating, but overall we’ve had a productive day of aero and exhaust testing.”

Fast Facts:

Track: Jerez, Spain, 4.4km
Chassis: E21-01
Weather: Sunny, ambient 5-18°C, track 7-26°C
Programme: System checks, temperature monitoring, data correlation, evaluation of the performance of the car with its initial aerodynamic package.
Laps Completed: 40
Classification: P4, 1:19.200
Interruptions: Running curtailed early (clutch).

Lotus F1